The Moments After
by athebeach
Summary: Cristina & Owen following the events of the Season 6 finale
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

_**Chapter 1**_

_**30 minutes**_

There is always a moment - a point in time when your mind rights itself from its shock-induced stupor and acknowledges the trauma it just went through. It's unpredictable. Sometimes it's a jarring course correction, while other times, it's a gradual process - akin to waking up from a vivid dream. However, no matter which path your mind takes, this moment is bound to happen.

You try to stall this inevitable confrontation with the truth by telling yourself comforting lies. That this couldn't have happened. That this was just a bad dream. That you should be proud of the amazing surgery you just performed. But the thing about reality is that it is unmercifully persistent.

You look around and feel the slight sting of tears threatening to re-emerge, but you close your eyes in defiance and push them back, along with the overwhelming urge to breakdown and cry. You fight it. You don't allow yourself to breakdown because you're strong, not weak.

Cardio goddesses are not allowed to be weak.

Exhaling a shaky breath, you push down the huge lump in your throat and will your breathing to return to normal. Slowly, the tears begin to recede and you are able to regain control of yourself. With a firm grip on your emotions, you turn away from the OR table and start to make your way out of the room.

Then it happens – the moment.

Funny how it didn't occur when you were making your final stitch or when the armed SWAT team member barged in to give the all clear. Or when Meredith wrapped you in her arms and whispered "thank you" over and over again in your ear for saving the love of her life.

No, it happens when you head towards the scrub room door and nearly slip. You catch yourself and look down. It takes you a minute to understand what caused you to almost fall. Why would someone leave a marble on the_….Oh, it's just a bullet casing._

The memories of what just happened rush back like a flash flood that you can't stop or outrun. Suddenly, your tentative grip on denial slips away and you find yourself falling into the void.

You feel yourself crumpling, yet for some reason you don't hit the floor. A strong arm reaches out and catches you. He holds you tight to his chest as you both sink to the floor. Once again, you find solace only in his arms.

Your shock is quickly replaced with concern for him. You want to tell him that he shouldn't be doing this because he just had surgery, that he's probably pulling out his stitches by holding you like this. And you would tell him just that…if only you could breathe.

Breathe…

You can't breathe.

You begin to gasp for air. Immediately, your surgical mask is being quickly pulled off by his large hand. You choke back a sob, and the room quickly blurs in a painful, glassy haze. He holds you tighter, whispering in your ear, "It's ok. It's all over now. I'm here."

Your façade finally breaks and you let go burying your face in his neck. Your sobs drown out the rest of the world till the only thing you can feel is him holding you tighter to his chest.

Holding you because he came back.

For you.

Just like you knew he would.

**Author's Note:** Ok, so this is my first time writing fanfic. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I have to give a _huge_ thank you to my fabulous beta-reader Shli. Check out her other stories and the 'Season 6 and a Half' written by the _InTheBetween_. It's great.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

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_**Chapter 2**_

_**3 hours**_

Cristina could hear him before she could see him.

Owen's deep voice, laced with anger and frustration, echoed throughout the hallway. Hearing him argue with his unwitting captors, Cristina could feel his exasperation reverberating in his every word. Obviously, someone was not taking "No" for an answer.

Thankfully, Cristina's Person had already given her a heads up on the situation before leaving to care for Derek. Apparently in her guy's expert medical opinion, as Seattle Grace's Head of Trauma, it was completely unnecessary for him to spend the night for observation. Meredith had given her a sympathetic look as she'd told her what room to find him in - or rather, what room he was supposed to be in.

Turning the corner, she spotted Owen, with his back turned towards her, comically alternating between making animated gestures at Webber and Teddy and holding onto the IV pole for balance with his one good arm. Yep, "her guy" was certainly not going down without a fight.

Making her way closer to the group, she spotted Nurse Tyler out of the corner of her eye mouthing, "Help," gesturing his head towards the trio of doctors. Shaking her head in amusement, she quietly walked up behind Owen and gently took his hand into hers.

Owen quickly turned around in surprise at her sudden presence and nearly lost his balance in the process. Sensing an ally in her, he began to restate his case. "They're trying to make me spend the night. I keep telling them that it's just a through-and-through and that I'm fine, but they won't let me leave. Can you tell them that I'm…"

Cristina abruptly silenced him with a look. She was not in the mood to hear any of his irrational arguments right now. Holding his gaze with a pointed glare, she watched as his bravado instantly melted away into an accepting nod.

Without another word, Owen slowly turned and walked back into his hospital room. The astonished expressions of Webber and Teddy at Owen's sudden retreat did not go unnoticed, and she gained a small sense of satisfaction from them. Nurse Tyler was the first of the stunned group to move, quickly following Owen into his room to help him get back into bed before he had any second thoughts.

Glancing over her shoulder to watch Nurse Tyler reattach a disgruntled Owen to his monitors, Cristina had to hold back the little smile that was threatening to cross her face. She was about to join the pair in the room when Webber's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Yang."

Cristina immediately turned around. Titled or not, Webber would always be the Chief and when the Chief used that tone of voice, it meant "shut up and listen."

"You did a hell of a job there today, Yang. I don't know how you were able to do what you did in those circumstances, but I want you to know how proud I am of you."

Despite the horrific events of the day, she couldn't help but feel a surge of pride at the man's words. "Thank you, sir."

"No, thank you. You deserve it." Gesturing towards Owen's room, his expression changed, and he gave her a stern look, "Now, you make sure he stays in that room all night, you hear me? I can't have another attending out due to some preventable complication that occurred just because he thinks that he can fix himself."

Cristina smiled. With a quick glance towards Owen, she gave Webber an affirmative nod. "Yes, sir."

"Well, good night."

With that, the "Chief" stepped forward, and Cristina found herself suddenly engulfed in a huge bear hug. "I'm very proud".

Just as quickly as the impromptu embrace began, it was over.

Turning back around, she noticed that Teddy was still there. The woman hadn't uttered a word since Cristina had first walked up. Now, she was quietly looking into Owen's room.

Cristina was about to say something to her, until she noticed it - the hopeful linger was gone. Sure, she had noticed it before, but she had always assumed it was just an old artifact of their war bond. Irritating, yes, but she had never thought that it could be due to any real romantic feelings, at least none reciprocated by Owen, until Meredith put those doubts into her head a few days ago.

Not that it mattered now. There was no doubt in her mind to whom Owen's heart truly belonged and judging by Teddy's gaze, apparently his friend had finally realized this, too.

The blonde surgeon finally turned away from the glass and caught Cristina looking at her.

"You were amazing today, Cristina. You really were. I'm so glad that you're okay."

"Thank you. I'm glad you made it out okay, too."

An embarrassed look quickly passed over Teddy's face. She paused, as if she was carefully considering her next words. "I never meant to….I didn't want to ever…"

"I know." And she did. Cristina understood what she was referring to, what she was trying to apologize for. No more words were necessary. Sure, it was more forgiveness than Teddy deserved for wrecking havoc on her relationship with Owen for the past eight months. But after today, Cristina had no desire to be spiteful. It was over. Time to move on. Teddy gave her an appreciative smile and turned to leave.

Inexplicably struck by the sudden urge to tell her how much Teddy's mentorship meant to her, Cristina called out, "Pig or cow".

Teddy turned, obviously confused. "What?"

"Pig or cow."

"I don't understand. Pig or…"

Cristina interjected, "From my first solo surgery. Pig or cow. That's how I knew what approach to choose today. I wouldn't have been able to perform that procedure today if you hadn't taught me."

"Cristina, I…"

"I want you to stay." The words came out of her mouth automatically. Maybe it was due to her gut feeling that Teddy would want to leave now since Owen was no longer in the picture. And as much as she wanted to deny it, Teddy was the best mentor she'd ever had. Sure, Burke had taught her procedures that had made her light-years ahead of her peers in terms of skills. But really, it wasn't until Teddy that she regained the confidence in her skills.

Teddy's eyes darted nervously between Owen's room and the floor, seemingly debating what to do. After a few moments, she finally looked back at Cristina and gave her a nod. "Of course."

Cristina reciprocated the gesture. "Okay".

Teddy gave one last glance back towards Owen's hospital room. Turning to walk away, she paused and looked at Cristina.

"Take care of him."

Despite the strong desire to point out that she had never stopped taking care of Owen, Cristina forced herself to hold her tongue. Obviously, this was Teddy's way of telling her she was really letting go and closing this chapter on her life, so she gently told her, "I will."

With a quick nod, Teddy left.

Looking back towards Owen's room, Cristina noticed him watching her through half-lidded eyes. Clearly, the exhaustion from the day's events was finally a toll. As she made her way over to his bed to re-check his monitors, she could feel his gaze tracking her every move. Sure, the rational doctor part of her knew that he was fine, but she needed the reassurance. She needed to be reassured that nothing else horrible could happen today.

"I'm fine," Owen groggily slurred. Cristina smirked. Apparently, Tyler had also added a morphine drip before Mr. Tough Guy could have second thoughts about staying.

"Oh yeah, having a hole in your shoulder is no big deal at all," she snapped back as she checked his bandage.

"Nah…it's just a flesh wound." She rolled her eyes at him as he tried to crack a smile in an apparent attempt to lighten her mood.

Cristina, however, was exhausted and wasn't in the mood to joke around. "It's not just a flesh wound, Owen. You were shot. You were…" Without warning, all of the emotions that she thought she was past came rushing back and tears suddenly filled her eyes.

Owen immediately noticed the change, his eyes widening in alarm. "Cristina? Cristina, come here."

Ignoring his request, she turned her back to him and quickly wiped away the tears spilling down her cheeks. With a deep breath, she turned back around and busied herself with monitoring his vitals, shaking her head at his concern. "No. I'm fine. I just have to check…".

"Cristina?"

Cristina looked up, reacting to his gentle tone. Owen winced as he slowly readjusted his position on the bed with his good arm. Gesturing towards the newly opened space beside him, he quietly said, "Please…Come here and let me hold you."

Cristina bit her lip and felt the last bit of her resolve crumble away.

It was his eyes. As much as she could influence him with a single glance, the opposite was equally true. His pleading look was all it took for her to immediately slip out of her shoes and crawl into bed with him.

Curling up against his side, her sobs quickly overtook her as Owen softly stroked her back with his one good arm.

Clutching the tear-soaked fabric of his shirt, she stuttered the words that she would never utter aloud to anyone else but him, "I was so scared."

"I would have killed him before I let anything happen to you." Despite his drug-induced state, she could hear the steely clear resolve in his voice.

His declaration caused her to immediately flash back to the scene in the OR. The horror of him getting shot replayed over and over in her mind. "I…I almost lost you."

"No, no. Shh….I'm here." Owen paused to take a shallow breath to steady his voice, but she could hear it slightly crack as he whispered, "I'll never leave you."

The minutes passed by in silence as Cristina closed her eyes and simply laid her head next to his while holding his hand. While he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, Cristina opened her eyes and said, "You came back for me."

"Of course I did. I can't lose you, Cristina. You're the love of my life." Owen whispered back to her, obviously fighting to stay awake.

Cristina raised her head to look into his eyes, which were glassy with tears. Shaking his head, he whispered, "I'm so sorry for hurting you."

She silenced him with a soft kiss to the lips. As she pulled away, she saw him intensely looking into her eyes, willing her to believe him. "I love _you_," he said emphatically.

Cristina leaned forward to capture his lips in a passionate kiss. Resting her forehead against his, she whispered, "I love you, too," and gave him one last lingering kiss before lowering her head next to his on the pillow.

The exhaustion- and the morphine- was clearly overtaking him and she could feel his breathing begin to slow as he drifted off to sleep. She waited, then quietly slid out of bed, thinking to sleep on the nearby couch so he could have a restful night.

As she was about to swing her other leg out of the bed, she felt him grab her wrist.

Without opening his eyes, he groggily murmured, "Stay. Please."

Cristina lifted the blanket and slid back under the covers with him. Leaning up, she softly kissed each of his closed eyelids before giving him a tender kiss on the lips. Feeling her own eyes grow heavy with exhaustion, she grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers together. Finally feeling safe for the first time that day, Cristina allowed herself to succumb to sleep and finally have a moment of peace.

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**Author's Note**: Once again, thanks again to my great beta-reader Shli :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

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_**Chapter 3**_

_**30 hours**_

"You need to take your meds," Cristina told Owen, as she watched him painfully wince while easing into bed. Grabbing a spare pillow off the floor, she walked around to the other side of the bed and propped it up behind his chest to alleviate some of his discomfort.

Owen shook his head at her. "I feel fine. It only hurts a little when I move around."

Cristina lifted her eyebrow in mock agreement. This tough guy act was getting really old, really fast. "Oh? Only when you move?" Rolling her eyes, she finished checking his bandage.

Determining that the dressing looked okay, she announced, "I'm getting your Vicodin."

Before he could make another assertion that he was "fine," she turned and went to the kitchen to get his medicine. Running her hand through her hair, Cristina groaned. It had been only eight hours since he was discharged from the hospital, and she was already completely exhausted from playing nurse. With Owen apparently hell-bent on maintaining his "real men staple their legs shut without pain medication" reputation, she felt as if she was stuck in an endless cycle of reminding him over and over again to take his meds. Just one more reason why she was a surgeon: surgeons didn't have to be involved in all the day-to-day "please take your meds" crap.

Grabbing his small orange bottle out of her purse, she walked back into the bedroom. Gently sitting on the edge of the bed next to him, she palmed out his dosage and held her hand out to him. However, much to her annoyance, Owen ignored the pills in her hand and tried to pacify her with a smile.

"I feel fine…I took it four hours ago."

Narrowing her eyes, Cristina gave him her best "do not fuck with me" glare. Owen wisely immediately grabbed the pills from her hand.

"Okay, okay."

Placing the pills on the nightstand, Owen made to get out of bed. "I have to go get some water."

Sighing, Cristina held out her hand to stop him and rose from the bed, "No, I'll get it. You stay here."

She made her way into the kitchen to get him a glass of water. While she was tired of the pointless bickering, she did have to admit that it was nice to have something to do to keep her mind off of yesterday's events - events that kept flashing in her mind throughout the day, no matter how hard she tried or how many times she reassured Owen they weren't.

Rummaging through his cupboards, she tried to find where he hid his glasses. They rarely stayed over at his place, so Cristina felt completely disoriented in his kitchen – though she had to admit she tended to be disoriented in _any_ kitchen. But really, if he were the chef that he claimed to be – he should have kept this kitchen better organized. Finally finding a glass that didn't look as if it was part of a second grade science experiment for dust accumulation, she grabbed some ice cubes out of the freezer and went over to the sink.

Frankly, she wouldn't have _any_ confusion of where to find everything if had she been able to stick to her original plan of bringing Owen back to her apartment. However, that idea had been decidedly thwarted when she'd walked in on her roommate and her "former" ex-girlfriend in the act of "reconciling" with each other on the kitchen counter. In that moment, Cristina had decided that there were some things that she could deal with - and two love-struck women rediscovering the brevity of life was definitely _not _among the list of those things.

Smirking to herself as she filled up the glass, she recalled Owen's face after she had nearly knocked him down as she'd rushed out the door with her overnight bag.

"_We're going to your place. Don't ask." _

_Owen looked at her with a bewildered expression when she walked right past him, making a beeline for the elevator door they'd just came out of._

_It took a moment for Cristina to notice that Owen hadn't followed her. Peeking her head out of the elevator, she saw him regarding her with absolute confusion._

_"So, we're not...?"_

_"Owen. Leaving. Now!"_

_Snapped out of his reverie, he nodded and slowly backtracked his way to the elevator. _

_He really is adorable when he's slow_, Cristina thought as she recalled that moment. With the newly filled glass of water, she walked back into the bedroom and noticed that Owen had a troubled expression on his face. Handing him the glass, she softly asked, "You okay?"

He looked up at her and the expression quickly vanished from his face. Giving her a forced smile, he said, "I'm fine." He took a sip of the water before putting it on the nightstand. "Thank you".

She didn't want to press him, but she was concerned at what might be troubling him. Not wanting to start another argument, Cristina let it go for the time being and walked over to his dresser. She rummaged through his drawers until she finally found her favorite Army shirt of his. Stripping out of her day clothes, she threw the oversized t-shirt on over her head.

Pausing by the large bookcase in the corner, she scanned his large collection of medical journals and grabbed the latest issue of _The New England Journal of Medicine_. Then, she walked over to her side of the bed and slipped under the covers next to him.

She wasn't a paragraph into her article before she noticed Owen staring at her out of the corner of her eye. With a sigh, she put down her journal and looked over, "What is it? Do you need something else?"

Owen gave her his best apologetic smile, "Actually, can you get my wallet?"

"Your wallet? Why do you need your….", Cristina's protests were silenced by his pleading eyes. "Okay. Fine." It really wasn't fair when he gave her that damn puppy dog expression. Rolling out of bed with an exaggerated groan, she muttered, "Maybe you shouldn't have taken your meds. You're starting to lose it."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

Rounding the bed Cristina shook her head, "No. You need to take the pills. I'm getting the wallet." Before she reached the door she paused and turned around, "While I'm up this time, would you like anything else?"

"You."

Cristina rolled her eyes and quickly turned before he could see her break into a smile. She was fairly convinced that he was losing it. Maybe this is why he stapled his leg shut without drugs when they first met - so she wouldn't find out that he acted like a complete idiot when he was on painkillers.

His wallet. Seriously? What the hell was going to do with his wallet? Grabbing it off the counter, she walked back into the bedroom and tossed it into the bed beside him.

"Here you go. Clearly the Vicodin is taking effect." Settling back into bed, she pulled up the covers and nodded toward him, "Okay, so what are you going to do with your wallet?"

Owen handed it over to her. "Open it."

"What?"

"Just open it."

"Why do you want..?" She didn't want to give in to his lunacy, but she figured that if she was ever going to be able to get back to reading her journal, she had no choice but to humor him. "Fine." Opening the small pouch, she pulled out its lone item. A diamond ring.

Stunned and momentarily at a complete loss for words, Cristina simply stared at the ring. Finally, she managed to stammer out, "Uh, what…is…what is this?"

Owen, who was acting very calm and determined, nodded towards the ring, "Read the engraving."

With a deep shuddering breath, Cristina held the ring up to the light and read the script engraving: _C- My Forever. _Completely bewildered - and a little freaked out - she looked back at him, trying to say something but unable to form a response. All she knew was that yesterday she was breaking up with him because he couldn't tell her that he loved her, and now, he was giving her an engagement ring.

What. The. Hell. It was simply too much to take in.

Slipping his hand out of his sling, he showed her the pills that he was supposed to have swallowed earlier. His face was full of conviction as he turned towards her and grabbed her hand with his good arm.

"I need you to hear this from me and know that this is the truth. No druggy ramblings. Just me." Gesturing towards the ring in her other hand he said, "I needed you to see that so you knew."

Cristina's shaky voice cracked, betraying her stoic exterior. "I…knew what?"

Owen drew a deep breath and looked deep in her eyes, "I need you to know that there has never been or will ever be a choice about who I want to spend the rest of my life with. It's always been you. I can't tell you how sorry I am that you thought I was confused about my feelings for you. I never was. Cristina, the only thing in my life that I am absolutely sure of is that I am completely and utterly in love with you. And that I will never stop loving you."

He paused and nodded towards her, "_That_ I am sure of. Hell, I've known that since the day I met you. The only question that I've ever had about Teddy was whether I could continue to work with her around. Ever since she's been here, I've been having more and more flashbacks and episodes. I made you scared to be around me for chrissakes. I can't hurt you again. I've hurt you too much."

Cristina opened her mouth to respond, but Owen shook his head and continued, "I have. I don't deserve you. I feel like the luckiest person alive that you allow me to be a part of your life, and it scares me to death that you were almost taken away from me yesterday. I can't live without you, Cristina."

Her eyes filling with tears, Cristina looked down at the ring in her hands and felt torn by the many conflicting emotions in her head. Looking back up at him she whispered, "Owen….I don't…"

Owen covered her hand with his and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything. I don't want you to. I know we're not ready. I'm not ready. I know you doubted me yesterday. I don't know why or how you think I could love Teddy, but I don't. I only love you. You will be the last woman I say that to. I keep that ring in my wallet as a promise and a goal to get better for you. For us. Through all the therapy and all the bullshit, I keep this with me to remind me of what I have to gain and of what I could lose. To remind me to keep working no matter how hard it is. You are my future. You've always been the one. There's no one else and there will never be. You're it."

Cristina could feel the tears running down her cheeks but didn't turn away from his loving gaze. She tried to find the words she wanted to say to him, but couldn't, so she grabbed his face in her hands and pulled him in for a passionate kiss.

Leaning back down next to him, she felt a sharp prick in her palm of her hand and quickly remembered that she was still holding the ring. Holding it up to the light, Cristina leaned into Owen, resting her head on his shoulder, and told him, "It's beautiful."

"It was my grandmother's."

"Your grandmother?"

Owen smiled, "Yeah. My mom gave it to me. I didn't even know she had it until she gave it to me one day. My grandparents and I were really close, so she knew that it would mean a lot to me to have it. She told me that she finally gave it to me because I finally found someone that I should give it to - someone that I deserved to give it to." Cristina smiled, as Owen continued, "She also might have said something about me finally growing up and finding a real woman and not some blonde airhead – regardless of how sweet she was. And that there was no way in hell that she was going to let her to even see it, let alone wear it on her finger."

Cristina laughed. Owen's mom would say something like that. She was kind as can be, but she was a straight shooter with absolutely no filter when it came to voicing her opinions - which was exactly why Cristina liked her so much.

"Have I told you lately how much I love your mom?"

Owen looked at her with a smile. "She loves you too. You're all she asks about when I call her to tell her that I'm coming over. She doesn't care whether or not I'm coming over. She only wants to know if I'm bringing you along when I do. Heck, knowing how well you two get along, I have to admit that I'm a little of scared to think of the schemes you two could plot together."

Cristina raised her brow at him in mock seriousness, "Oh, you should be scared. Two badasses paired up. Who knows what we could do?" Pausing, she rolled her eyes at him, "Come on, Owen. Scared of your mom? Seriously? She could give June Cleaver a run for her money."

Owen shrugged in agreement. "Yeah…well, I bet your mom is just the same."

Cristina laughed, "Oh, hell no! When I told you that I was adopting your mom, I meant it!"

"Well, I'm going to have to meet her eventually."

"Oh, sure. After you've put a ring on it, though. I don't want her to scare you away."

Owen shook his head. "No one could scare me away from you."

Cristina scoffed, "You haven't met my mother."

Chuckling, he leaned over to kiss her but stopped halfway with a painful wince.

Cristina reached over to grab his medicine off the nightstand, "Take your pills."

Owen took the pills from her hand and downed them without water.

"And you needed the glass of water, why?"

Owen shrugged. "Needed to stall. I'm not good at talking and I had to make sure that I remembered everything I wanted to say to you. Love you. Check. Want to spend the rest of my life with you. Check."

Cristina shook her head in amusement. Settling into bed, she rested her head on his pillow and asked, "So, do I get to keep it?"

She felt Owen shake his head and whisper in her ear, "One day. Not today."

Cristina paused. The idea of keeping the ring could constitute insanity, yet it felt so right. There was no fear or doubt in keeping it. Taking one more look down at the ring, she whispered to him, "I might be able to be persuaded."

"And my willpower isn't strong enough to resist giving in if you say yes right now...One day. I promise. It will be a surprise."

"A surprise? Umm…" Cristina held the ring up to him with a chuckle. Maybe she was wrong, but wasn't the ring itself supposed to be the surprise?

Owen laughed and slightly shrugged his good shoulder.

Seeing the gleam in his eyes, she pointed her finger at him. "But no embarrassing romantic gestures, all right? I know that that's your thing, but I won't say yes."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that."

"Wait. You already know how you're going to do it?"

Owen looked at her with a knowing gaze, "Cristina, I've known for a long time."

Out of all the things he could have said, this admission took her curiosity into overdrive. There were things that she was good at: surgery, keeping secrets, hot dog eating contests. Waiting for surprises? Not so much.

"Tell me."

"No, I'm not going to tell you."

Pouting, Cristina tried a different approach. "Fine. No sex 'til you do."

Owen looked over at her like she had lost her mind. "You can't be serious."

Well no, she wasn't, but it was the only thing that came to mind. Cristina tried to convincingly stare him down until she felt his hand start to move across her stomach and down towards her… Damn it! Resolution gone, her façade instantly fell.

"Ugh, no. I can't punish myself too. How about…?" Running out of suitable blackmail to pry the information out of him, she gave up. "Oh, fine. Whatever."

Grabbing the wallet off the bed, she placed the ring back in the pouch and handed it back to him, "Here you go."

Owen was about to grab it before Cristina pulled it back. "Let's get something straight. If I sense even an inkling of McDreamy's influence in your plan, I'll say no and kick your ass."

Owen laughed and agreed with a nod, "Okay. Got it." Pulling her close with his good arm, he gave her a kiss as Cristina snuggled against his side. "Love you."

Cristina gently wrapped her arm across his chest, wary of hurting him, and leaned in close, "Love you, too." Feeling him kiss the top of her head, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

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**AN:** Once again, a huge thank you and high-five to my awesome beta reader Shli


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

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**_**Chapter 4  
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_**3 weeks**_

Cristina was furious. She was furious and embarrassed and a hundred other emotions that she didn't want to give voice to right now. All she knew was that the absolute_ last _thing she wanted to deal with today was this jammed door lock that she couldn't to force her key into. She was about to kick the door down when it suddenly swung open revealing a bewildered Owen on the other side.

"Uh, hi?"

Cristina mumbled a curt, "Hi," and walked by him without saying another word.

She made her way into the bedroom and forcefully threw her bag onto the bed. Her head was killing her. She quickly debated her options as to how she should remedy her headache. In lieu of Advil, Cristina instead headed into the bathroom and turned the shower's lever to the highest temperature available, letting the hot steam fill up the room. The pain medication would have to wait - she needed a glass of wine and a long, hot shower first.

With her black hair completely in knots after being confined under her scrub cap all day, Cristina reached up and expertly untangled the strands before stepping into the shower. Once under the searing hot jets, she closed her eyes, letting the water pound down on her and relieve the tension in her head and shoulders. Slowly, she felt the tension in her muscles and the brewing anger within her begin to recede.

...

With the building's hot water supply finally exhausted, Cristina exited the steam-filled room and went into the bedroom to change. She smiled as she noticed a newly folded change of clothes neatly placed on the bed. As she threw Owen's t-shirt over her head, she heard a loud clang of metal pots echoing down the hall. Intrigued, she walked out of the room into the kitchen where Owen was checking on something baking in the oven. Whatever it was, it smelled divine.

Owen closed the oven's door and turned to look over at her, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

He gave her an understanding nod and went to grab some plates out of the cupboard. "Did you eat anything yet?"

Cristina shook her head. Frankly, she couldn't remember if she ate anything at all today, but the smell enveloping the room was making her stomach growl.

Owen gestured towards the oven, "I made some lasagna. Would you like some?"

Thankful for his offer, she softened her voice in response, "Please."

"Okay."

Cristina silently watched as Owen went about setting their plates and silverware on the bar stool counter. After a few minutes, he pulled the finished lasagna out of the oven and served both of them.

She gave him an appreciative smile as she took her first bite. "Thank you."

Owen returned her smile. "Of course."

The meal was eaten in silence. Cristina was still not ready to think about – let alone talk about – the day's events, and thankfully, Owen did not press her. Once they were finished, Cristina grabbed their plates and threw them into the sink. As she was throwing the last of the leftovers in the trash, she noticed the distinct smell of formaldehyde coming from somewhere in the adjoining room.

Curious as to what the source of the smell could be, she walked around the other side of the doorway and ran into an extremely large cooler. She opened the large cooler and spotted several bright orange biohazard bags filling the container to the brim. Confused as to what Owen could be storing in bags, Cristina peeked back around the corner and asked him, "What the— ? What's in the container?"

Owen walked over to see what she was referring to. "Oh, don't go in there."

With her curiosity piqued by his embarrassed expression, Cristina paused for a moment and then opened the cooler anyways.

"Oh my god. Why do …." Finally able to take her eyes off the container's contents, she demanded, "Owen, why the hell do you have dead cats in a bin?"

Owen ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. "I was um…operating."

"You were operating? On dead cats?"

He nervously scratched the back of his neck as he explained, "Friend of mine – he's a vet. Remember the pig guy? Well anyways, we were talking today and he mentioned that he was dropping off some cats off at a local high school for an anatomy class and wanted to know if I wanted some. I said sure and he brought these over this afternoon."

Cristina tried to lower her raised eyebrows, but they remained frozen in an upward unbelieving state. She wasn't one to judge a scalpel-hungry person who wasn't able to operate, but a cooler full of dead cats? That was just bizarre. "Umm…."

Owen gave an exasperated sigh, "I've been going out of my mind not being able to do anything here, so I figured I could at least…"

"Operate on Frankenkitty?"

"Well, what else…?"

Cristina looked at the surgical supplies on the counter. "Can I have one?"

Judging by the shocked look on his face, this was not the reaction he was expecting. His gaped mouth made Cristina crack a smile for the first time that day. She gestured back over to the cooler with her eyes and asked again, "Can I?"

Owen stuttered in response, "A cat….uh…yeah, sure….Of course."

...

Owen took two cats out of the bin and set up two little surgical fields on the table. While he prepared their little macabre anatomy project, Cristina poured herself a glass of wine and watched him in amusement. With his setup finally complete, Owen pulled out the chair for her and held out a scalpel.

Cristina smiled at him as she grabbed the scalpel out of his hand and began working on her cat. The ridiculousness of the situation, along with the warm buzz of alcohol in her veins, allowed her to finally think about what happened in the OR earlier in the day. She still didn't know what happened. Well, she did know _what _happened, she just didn't know _why _it happened.

The minutes ticked by in silence as Cristina practiced stitches on her cat – the same stitch that she had frozen on in the OR. She was still in disbelief that it happened. She was the strong one. She wasn't supposed to be susceptible to anything like this.

The realization that she had frozen up while working on an aortic tear both terrified and angered her. Teddy's sympathetic gaze after she'd quietly dismissed Cristina from the OR only embarrassed her further. So, she repeated the same stitch over and over again to make sure she'd never to do anything like that again. As she reached over to grab more thread, she noticed that Owen was silently watching her.

"Did Teddy call you?"

"What?"

Cristina re-threaded her needle and looked back down. "About the thing. How did you know?" she mumbled.

"Meredith called earlier."

Cristina clenched her jaw. Of course her person would be worried about her, but she still didn't like anyone talking about what happened. Biting the inside of her lower lip, she asked, "Did she tell you what happened?"

Owen gently replied, "Yes".

Cristina let out a frustrated huff. Suddenly, the event flashed back in her mind, triggering all of the anger and frustration that went with it. She looked up at Owen to explain, "I don't know what happened. I was in the OR and… I don't know." She paused for a moment and then quickly grumbled, "The Chief suspended me for a week, and I have to start mandatory sessions with our favorite person before I can go back."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

"Maybe."

Cristina propped her head up on her elbow and shut her eyes with a sigh, "I don't know what happened today. I just…froze. I couldn't finish a stitch and got myself kicked out of the OR. End of story." She opened her eyes again and shook her head in disgust. "I don't want to talk about it right now. I just want to operate on my cat."

Owen gave her an understanding nod and handed her over more stitching. "Okay." Grateful for his understanding, Cristina silently took it from his hand and grumbled a "thank you."

Several minutes passed by in silence, with only the metallic 'tick tick tick' of the antique clock echoing throughout the room. Finally, Owen tentatively broke the silence. "If it makes you feel any better, I understand what you're…"

Cristina looked up with a glare. "You're talking about it. I told you – I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay, okay. I just wanted to say that I know what you're going through. What it feels like. How you get frustrated and angry..."

Cristina felt Owen's words coming way too close to tapping into the feelings she was trying so hard to suppress so she tried to ignore him. Instead of acknowledging his words, she re-threaded her needle and returned to stitching her cat.

"I just want to say that I know. They want you to put a name on what you're feeling, but you can't describe it."

Cristina clenched her jaw and tried to force down her rising emotions.

Owen paused to reach out and grab her wrist. The light contact caused her to look up at him as he continued. "It gets better. I promise. When you talk about it, it does. It will be horrible, and you'll hate it, but just remember that it gets better."

As she looked into Owen's sympathetic eyes, Cristina slowly felt her anger and embarrassment slowly fade away. She could tell he was trying his best to reach out to her, and she really did appreciate it. The fact that he had been through it too did make her feel better. Whatever "it" was. Ironic that they would face the same problem together, but at least they didn't have to go through it alone.

Owen lowered his voice and whispered, "It gets better. I promise."

She gave him a small appreciative nod and glanced back down at her numerous rows of stitches on her cat.

"You'll go with me? To Dr. Wyatt?"

Owen nodded, "I have a session on Tuesday. I can call and tell her that we're both coming. She may want to talk to you by yourself, but I'll wait outside."

Cristina looked down at his hand still encircling her wrist and gave it a small squeeze. "Thank you."

...

After an hour of practicing stitches, her cat was indeed looking like Frankenkitty with the parallel lines of sutures up and down its side. With a sigh, Cristina finally put her needle to look up and asked, "So what else having you been doing with them?"

"Timed operations."

"What?"

With a glint of mischief in his eye, he nodded back at her. "Timed operations." Before she could respond, he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen timer off the counter and two beers out of the fridge. As he sat back down he explained, "Make an incision to each other's cat. First one to close up wins. Quick and dirty."

Cristina didn't have to think twice. He had her at "timed operations" and the mere hint of competition. Owen picked the wrong day to challenge her to a contest. Her badass army surgeon was going down. "You're on. Prepare to cry like a—" Before she could finish her sentence, Owen grabbed his scalpel and stabbed her cat.

Taken off guard by his cheating behavior, she exclaimed, "What the hell?"

Her outburst caused him to lean back into his chair and throw his head back in laughter.

Cristina seized the opportunity while he was leaning away from the table to grab her scalpel and give his cat three deep incisions, "Take that!"

With the contest suddenly on, Owen quickly righted himself in his chair, picked up his needle and thread and began to sew in earnest. When he was finally able to catch his breath from laughing, he asked, "So when's the other twisted sister going to clear me for work?"

Cristina kept her gaze down, focusing on quickly stitching up her cat. "She said Monday, but if you don't stop calling her, she'll make it another week and give your case to Bailey."

Owen grumbled. "Fine."

"It's your own fault that you had to have that second surgery. I told you not to pick up those boxes."

"I know, I know. We've been over this several times."

"I just wanted to remind you…"

"…that you were right, and I was wrong. Got it." After a moment he asked, "How is she doing by the way?"

"Who?"

"Meredith."

"Better than I expected…I was a little worried at first that she might get all dark and twisty, but she's actually doing really well. I never thought that I'd say this, but I think post-it married life suits her."

Owen chuckled while he continued to stitch, "That's good. That's good. Derek seems to be doing better too."

"McDreamy? Yeah, I heard that he's finally out of bed. Probably couldn't handle not being able to wash his hair another minute."

"That...or else he has to get back to work to make back all the money I've been winning from him."

Cristina looked up from her cat for a brief moment, "Money?"

Owen shrugged, "What else are we going to do? I'm operating on dead cats, and he's been stuck in a bed with only a TV. The Mariners are playing, and I've discovered that 'pretty boy' is quite possibly the worst sports gambler ever, so I'm having a little fun. It's not the Seahawks, but hey, you have to make due with what you can."

She gave him an appreciative smirk. "I like it. You know, I think I may be rubbing off on you."

Owen looked up with a little grin. "Maybe a little."

"Well, now you have my company for a whole week. I bet you can figure out something else to occupy your time with."

He quickly picked up on her underlying meaning and lowered his voice in a knowing tone, "Oh, I think I come up with many things to pass the time with you."

Just as he was about to lean across the table to kiss her, Cristina threw up her hands with a triumphant yell, "Done!"

Owen stopped, confused at her sudden outburst, "What?" He looked down noticing her stitched up cat. "Oh, hell."

Unable to resist the temptation to tease him, Cristina gave him a mocking frown. "Ahh….poor baby. So, are you going to start crying like a little girl because you just got your GI Joe trauma surgeon ass handed to you by a cardio goddess?"

Owen looked at her and arched his brow, as if he was deep in thought. Taken aback by the sudden change in mood, she watched as he slowly got up out of the chair and stood behind her. Cristina was about to turn around when she felt him lightly caress her cheek and seductively whisper in her ear, "Well, no, but what I have in mind might involve some crying though… although it's more the kind that involves _you_ crying out my name."

Suddenly, Cristina could care less about who won the contest. She rose out of her chair and had barely turned around before Owen grabbed her in a fiery, passionate kiss.

Out of breath, she broke away from his embrace. "Well, I guess that works, too."

Owen smirked and captured her lips once again as they both began to undress each other in earnest. Stumbling into the bedroom, with a trail of shed clothing marking their path, they both fell into bed, laughing.

...

She had to say that for the record, Owen had some _great_ ideas. Rather than crying like a little girl, what Owen had had in mind was three rounds of passionate lovemaking during which he had completely erased all of her bad memories from earlier that day. Despite her need for a hard and fast release to numb the pain, Owen had gently taken the lead and had slowly and masterfully made her feel completely surrounded by his love.

Completely satiated from their lovemaking, Cristina laid her head on Owen's chest and lazily stroked his chest with her finger. There was something so peaceful and comforting by his simple gesture of twirling her curls in his fingers that she said, , "You know, maybe while I'm being forced not to operate this week, we could go look for a place."

When he didn't immediately reply, Cristina lifted her head off his chest and propped her head up on her elbow. He was looking back at her in shock, like this was something they had never discussed before. Did she really have to remind him that this was his idea in the first place? Besides, they had practically lived together for the past six months anyways.

Cristina lifted her eyebrows to signal that she was still waiting for his answer. "You…want to get a place together?" Owen stuttered.

"Yeah, I do. Don't act surprised. If I remember correctly, this was _your_ idea."

Owen broke into a smile. "Really?" She could tell that he was trying really hard to contain his excitement, but was failing miserably.

Cristina nodded. "Yes, really. We should get a place together."

Owen's smile grew even wider – if that was even possible. "Okay. We'll look for a place together then."

"But I'm not moving into the woods."

His smile dissolved into a confused frown. "What?"

"Oh, I've seen how excited you get when you talk to McDreamy about his McMansion in the middle of the wilderness."

Owen shrugged, "Well it's…"

"Not going to happen." Cristina gave him a pointed look to signal the end to that discussion. She had witnessed his enthusiasm discussing the McMansion's building plans with "Mo" and "Curly" many times and there was no way in hell Meredith was getting a neighbor anytime soon.

"How about down by the water?"

Cristina shrugged. "Depends. Better not be by Snow White's cottage."

"What?"

"Teddy. Snow White. Her and the little collection of forest creatures she always talks about. I like the woman, but sometimes you have to wonder."

Owen gave a hearty laugh. "Got it. No woods. No magical forest creatures."

With a nod, he threw on his boxers and walked out into the living room. A few moments later, he came back with a flyer. "Take a look at this."

Slightly intrigued by the paper in his hand, Cristina asked, "You have somewhere in mind?"

"Of course." Owen slid back into bed and handed her the flyer of a gorgeous home on the waterfront. "I wasn't going to ask you to move into my apartment. It's too small for both of us. Take a look at _this _place. It's down by the water overlooking Elliott Bay. There's four bedrooms and a deck that we can relax on. We'd have to drive to the hospital, but it's only a five-minute drive. I tested it. Three times." Cristina was about to comment, before Owen flipped the flyer over in her hand. "Plus, check out the view".

To say that she was "kind of" liked the house in the flyer would be the same as if she said that she "kind of" liked surgery. The house was absolutely stunning. Slightly rugged, with a definite modern touch, it was a perfect combination of their two styles. She had no idea how he found it, but it was... suddenly, Cristina looked down and noticed the asking price.

"Have you seen how much they're asking for this place?"

"Don't worry about the price. Do you like it?"

"Of course. It's gorgeous. But Owen, that's a hell of a lot of money and-"

Owen interrupted her midsentence, "Don't worry about the money. Let's just say that when you're a single guy working in the middle of the desert for seven years, you don't have that many things to spend money on." He smiled and gave a little shrug. "I have more than enough saved up. The important thing is if you like it. We can go look at it this week if you want."

His enthusiasm was proving to be contagious. Cristina couldn't help but smile as she pointed out, "Well, it just so happens that I have time to do that."

He looked as if she had just made him the happiest guy on earth, literally beaming with excitement – so much so that she could almost feel it rolling off him in waves. But it wasn't just his happiness that she was feeling, it was hers, too. She was surprised how much she wanted this. Cristina smiled as she leaned down, "You're going to buy me a house?"

Owen rolled on top of her and gave her a slow, deep kiss. Cristina could feel him smile against her lips as he pulled slightly away, whispering into her mouth, "I'm going to buy us a home."

* * *

**AN:** A huge thank you to my awesome beta reader Shli


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

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**Chapter 5**

_**3 months**_

Tonight was supposed to be their date night – the one night of her hectic week that she was supposed to be rewarded with good food and great sex with "Mr. Good Times" for a hard week's work and actually attempting to listen to (and not talk over) Dr. Wyatt during her sessions with Owen.

While she'd been forced to use every ounce of her willpower not to instinctively roll her eyes at Owen when he had first pitched the idea to her a couple of months ago, she'd gone along with his suggestion because he was so damn sincere in his attempt to do something to make her happy. That's not to say that she didn't lay out some guidelines before they'd gone out on their first date though. Before he even had a chance to grab his car keys, she'd let him know that while he was allowed to surprise her, there were certain things that were simply off limits, such as going to any restaurant with two sets of silverware or taking her anywhere that might involve bugs or hiking.

Owen, never ceasing to surprise her, had taken her out on the most fun date she had ever been on.

He'd taken her dancing.

Despite her initial objections, she'd decided before Owen had even put the keys back in the ignition that they were going to do that again – and soon. Especially since it'd turned out that Owen could dance – like _really _dance. Sure, she had known that he had some decent rhythm based on his bedroom prowess alone. But his actual dancing on the dance floor? Damn.

So it had become a routine. Every week, they would coordinate their schedules to ensure that they would have the same night off and then they would go out on their date. Never one to voluntarily leave the hospital for any reason_,_ Cristina couldn't believe how much she had come to look forward their date night each week; which was exactly the reason why she was so peeved when her pager began buzzing animatedly across the residents' lounge bench.

With a sigh, she grabbed her pager. She didn't even have to look at the message screen to know that their date was going to be postponed.

_Incoming Traumas – Report to pit – Immediately. _

Great.

With a groan, Cristina threw her scrubs back on and re-gathered her hair into a ponytail. This really wasn't fair. She'd been on for almost twenty hours and had been looking forward to their date all day. Hell, she'd even bought new lingerie set for tonight. Well, at least that wasn't a complete loss; she could still show it to him tonight. And there was a still good chance that she might get to work alongside Owen in the pit, which was almost as good as a date…almost.

The pager flashed again and she ignored it as she reattached the annoying device back to her hip. With one last forlorn glance at her street clothes, she grabbed her stethoscope and cell out of her locker and headed down to the pit.

...

After a quiet ride down to the ground floor, Cristina stepped through the elevator's doors only to find herself in the middle of total pandemonium. Nurses and interns were running in each and every direction with saline, blood and dressing. Orders of "more blood" and "I need a doctor" blended together into one urgent, incoherent voice. Dozens of injured patients on gurneys were being wheeled around and squeezed into every available area as doctors and nurses tried to quickly evaluate their injuries.

As she walked further into the chaos, she quickly spotted Owen in one of the trauma bays. He was attempting to calm down a screaming young boy, no older than three or four years old, as he tried to evaluate his injuries. She sensed that he could use some help and began to walk over to them until someone suddenly crashed into her from behind. Whirling around to see – and yell at – the idiot responsible for the bruise she was going to have tomorrow, Cristina discovered that it was none other than her former roommate, who looked completely disheveled and overwhelmed.

"Oh, sorry! Thank god you're still here!" Callie exclaimed, as she tried to rearrange the half dozen charts and entire surgical closet's worth of gauze in her arms. She quickly righted herself and continued on her path to the admittance desk. "I've been paging everyone!"

"What happened?"

Callie set everything down on the counter with a grunt. "Drunk driver on the wrong side of the freeway took out like ten cars. They're sending all of the worst traumas to us. It's a mess."

"Where do you need me?"

"Anywhere." She reached over and handed Cristina the stack of charts that she'd just placed on the counter. "Pick one."

Cristina gave a quick glace to the stack of cases in her arms and then placed them back on the counter in favor of deciding a case based on her own method: scanning the floor to see where the most interesting case was. Even though a potential cardio trauma was calling her name in the back corner, she couldn't help but notice that it was Owen who was in need of the most help at the moment. He was attempting to calm down and restrain his patient, who was thrashing wildly about, while instructing Avery what to do next. She began to walk towards them when she was suddenly pulled to a stop by someone from behind.

Shocked by her sudden detainment, Cristina turned around to see a bloodied, panic-stricken man clamped onto her arm. She tried to remove herself from his hold, but the man only tightened his grip on her forearm and began to pull her towards the ambulance bay.

"Ma'am, I need you to help my son. Please, ma'am. I need you to help my son!" he pleaded.

Unable to free herself, Cristina quickly scanned the room for the nearest security guard to take the man away. She was about to call out for help when she was suddenly released from his hold. Curious as to who had released her, she glanced over and saw that it was none other than Callie.

"Sir, Drs. Hunt and Avery are working on your son right now. Over there. See? Now, I need you to calm down and let us take a look at your head, okay?" Callie calmly explained, as she stepped in front of Cristina to separate the two.

"No, I'm fine. Just please help my son!"

Callie gave Cristina an exasperated glance. While this wasn't the sort of case Cristina was looking for, the crazy, rambling man did have deep wound to his forehead that needed to be examined. She nodded back to Callie to let her know that she was okay to take it from here and tried to direct the distraught man towards a bed. "Sir, we're taking good care of your son. If you just come with me over here…" Before she could finish her sentence, the ambulance bay doors flew open in front of them to reveal yet another young boy on a gurney.

"Oh, my God! Jimmy!" The man rushed towards the gurney and Cristina leapt forward to restrain him. "Please!" the man pleaded, "I need you to help my _other _son!"

Cristina glanced over and saw Kepner out of the corner of her eye. "Kepner! Come over here!" April quickly responded to her order and was instantly by her side. "Help this man."

With the father dealt with, Cristina went over to the paramedic and grabbed the boy's chart.

"Five-year-old boy. Thrown from the vehicle. Possible trauma to the head and an open fracture to the right forearm."

Cristina nodded and looked around for an open room to put him in. Suddenly, she heard Owen call out, "Trauma 2 is open. Take him in there." She nodded her thanks in his direction and wheeled the boy into the room, followed closely behind by the boy's father, who was dragging Kepner along.

She quickly attached the various leads to monitor boy's vitals and began her examination, noting that his pupils were fully dilated. "Someone page Shepherd and Robbins!" she yelled out to no one in particular.

"Shepherd's in surgery." Cristina rolled her eyes. Of course, April would know McDreamy's every whereabout. "Okay, page Robbins, then," she ordered with annoyance over her shoulder.

Before April could reply, Nurse Tyler announced from across the room, "I already did."

Cristina looked up from her patient and gave him an appreciative nod.

"What is wrong with my boy? Jimmy? Can you hear me? Jimmy talk to me!"

Cristina gritted her teeth in frustration. The last thing she needed right now was a hysterical father getting in her way. "Kepner, get him out of here."

"Jimmy!"

"_Now, _April!" Cristina barked.

"I'm sorry!"

Cristina let out a little sigh of relief as she heard April usher the father out of the room behind her. Less than a minute later, she heard the door open again and turned to see Arizona and Alex bursting into the room.

"What have we got?"

Cristina handed his chart over to Arizona as she quickly explained, "5-year-old boy thrown from a car. He has an open fracture to his radius; his pupils are dilated; and his breath sounds are clear."

"Did you page Shepherd?"

"He's in surgery."

Arizona gave her a curt nod. "Okay, thanks, Yang. Karev and I can take it from here."

Cristina's mouth dropped open at her abrupt dismissal. _What the hell?_ One day of unsuccessfully sucking up – playing Mr. Bear nonetheless – to save her job and now Robbins had it out for her for the rest of her career. Cristina didn't care what people said – that woman had a serious problem with holding grudges. That happy, shiny, loves teddy bears and wheelie sneakers attitude was all an act.

As she left the room, she saw Alex give her a little apologetic shrug from across the room. Cristina ignored his sympathetic gesture and instead glared at him as she walked out of the room – and directly into Owen and Avery's patient who they were wheeling down the hallway.

She was about to apologize when a bleeder suddenly erupted in front of her and she instinctively reached out to plug it with her hand. Her action took Owen off-guard, and he looked over at her in surprise. With her hand now literally holding the young boy's chest together, she shook her head at Owen's unstated question. "I'm good. Robbins and Karev took my kid."

Owen nodded to her, "Okay. Let's go." And they took off running towards the elevator.

...

"He's back," Cristina announced as she watch the heart monitor slowly return to its regular rhythm.

Everyone in the OR let out an audible sigh of relief as they watched the boy's vitals slowly regain their regular rhythm. They hadn't been even five minutes into the repairs before the surgery had quickly gone downhill and it had been touch-and-go ever since.

Cristina looked across the table at Owen to see if he was okay. During the surgery, he had become uncharacteristically more and more agitated and angry as they had worked on the boy. Her attempts to calm him down were largely unsuccessful and as the surgery went on she began to worry that he would be triggered into a full-blown episode.

"Dr. Hunt?" Jackson asked, as he held his scalpel in place awaiting Owen's instructions. "Umm…what do you want us to…?"

Cristina could see however that Owen was far away from them at the moment. "Owen."

At the sound of her voice, Owen's head snapped up to look at her. His eyes were still slightly glazed over and she tried to signal him to see if he was okay.

"Uh, you and Avery close up," he said, without giving a second glance towards her. With his gaze still averted, Owen quickly turned from the operating table and strode out of the room.

Cristina, along with the rest of the surgical team, was completely taken off-guard by Owen's abrupt exit. As she watched him through the scrub room glass, she heard Jackson give a small cough to get her attention.

"Do you want to go? I can finish up here," he asked, gesturing his head towards Owen through in the scrub room glass.

Cristina gave a short glance back at Owen, but decided that it would probably be better if she let him have a couple minutes to himself. "No. It's okay. Let's close him up and get him up to the ICU."

Avery gave her a nod and began to stitch alongside her.

...

Thankfully, the rest of the operation had gone by uneventfully and the boy remained stable. Cristina couldn't help but feel happy with their successful surgery, but as she scrubbed her hands her thoughts drifted to Owen, who had already left by the time they were finished. Somehow working on the young boy had clearly triggered him and she was worried. He hadn't acted like that in the OR since he'd gone back to Dr. Wyatt.

With her concern for him growing by the second, she tried to scrub out as fast as she could.

"You know, if you need to go, I can go talk with the family," Jackson quietly offered, gesturing towards her frantic hand washing.

She started to tell him that he didn't have to do that, but her concern for Owen quickly made her reevaluate his offer. "You would?"

With affirmative nod of his head, Jackson assured her, "No problem."

Cristina finished drying off her hands and gave him a small smile, "Thanks," and walked out the scrub room.

...

Out of all of the places in the hospital Owen would go, Cristina figured that the most likely spot she would find him would be the vent. After running down four flights of stairs, she finally reached the basement floor and threw open the boiler room's door. She took a step into the steam-filled room, only to find it completely empty. Slightly perplexed as to where else he would go, she grabbed her pager off of her hip and sent him a page asking where he was.

The only other place that they frequently visited was their "secret" on-call room on the second floor, so she ran back up the stairs. As she made her way down the quiet dermatology floor's corridor, she scanned the hallways for his familiar mop of red hair. Finally reaching the room, she turned the handle, only to find that it was locked. She knocked and said, "It's me." After no response, she pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear if anyone in the room.

Much to her relief, she heard footsteps padding across the floor and towards the door. Finally able to catch her breath, she stepped back and waited for Owen to open the door. As soon as she heard the door's lock click open, she impatiently reached forward to open the door - only to reveal a sweaty, shirtless Mark Sloan on the other side.

"Uh, yes? You need something Yang? Or did you want to join in on the fun?"

Disgusted, Cristina slammed the door in his face.

After walking a considerable distance down the hallway so she wouldn't be able to hear Sloan desecrating_ their_ on-call room, Cristina tried Owen's pager again. She was becoming a little more alarmed; he _always_ immediately answered her pages. She then tried calling his cell – which went immediately to voicemail.

"Dammit, Owen!"

Cristina was at a complete loss as to what else to try and growing increasingly convinced that Owen was in the middle of an episode. Suddenly, she saw one of her old interns round the corner and she reached out to grab his arm.

"Have you seen Dr. Hunt?"

Steve jumped as if she had shocked him with an electric prod. "Uh…I think…. I think he's in surgery?" he stammered.

Cristina immediately released him and walked – or rather jogged – to the elevator and punched the button to the surgical floor. Once there, she walked up to the first available nurse at the surgical scheduling desk.

"Which OR is Dr. Hunt performing surgery in?"

The nurse gestured over towards the surgical board without even glancing up at Cristina.

"Gee, thanks. You're a whole lot of help."

Anxious, worried and now pissed off, Cristina walked up to the board and began to scan the names. Hunt was not on the board.

"Sorry I got you kicked off your case."

Cristina spun around to see Alex standing behind her.

"You're out of surgery already?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, kid lucked out. CT came back with just a mild concussion. All we had to do was have Torres set the arm. What about yours? Did you get to scrub in with Hunt?"

"Yeah, I did."

"How'd that go?"

"Touch-and-go for a little bitWe almost lost him, but he pulled through."

"Damn. Talk about lucky."

"Have you seen him actually?"

"Who?"

"Owen."

Alex furrowed his brow and then shook his head. "No. Well, at least not since I've been here. Sorry."

Cristina shrugged, "No, no. It's fine." Having exhausted yet another lead as to where Owen may be, she reached down and tried to page him again.

"Do you want me to page you if I see him?"

She looked up, just finishing the final touches on her text to Owen: Call_ me NOW! _"Uh, yeah. Sure. Thanks."

Alex gave her a small smile as she turned and walked away. She was midway through leaving her tenth voicemail to Owen when she heard Nurse Tyler call out her name behind her.

"Yang. Uh, Dr. Yang?"

Cristina closed her phone and turned back around.

"You're looking for Dr. Hunt?"

"Yeah. Have you seen him?"

He gestured towards the stairwell. "I saw him go through that door. I think he was going up."

"How long ago?"

Tyler shrugged. "I don't know. Five – ten minutes or so? Seemed like he was in a hurry wherever he was going."

Cristina gave him a grateful smile, "Thanks," and then turned to run up the stairwell.

...

Cristina ran up the flight of stairs and stopped at each floor to ask if anyone had seen Owen. After getting negative replies from every person, she continued her quest upwards until she finally reached the helicopter platform on the roof. However, the large metal door to the roof wouldn't budge no matter how hard she pushed it. At her wits' end, Cristina took out all of her frustration on the door and threw her body against it, causing it fly wide open. She quickly scanned the rooftop for her redheaded trauma surgeon, letting out a sigh of relief when she finally spotted him leaning against the railing at the far corner of the roof.

Relieved, yet angry at his apparent unscathed state, she yelled at him across the rooftop. "What the hell are you doing?"

Owen quickly turned around in surprise. "Uh…waiting?" he said, gesturing towards the horizon.

"Waiting?" Cristina's eyes bulged out in disbelief. She threw her hands up into the air and shouted across the deck, "Are you kidding me?"

"I got paged."

If there was anything that he could have said that would have pissed her off more –well, she couldn't think of it now. Furious, she lowered her voice a low growl. "You…got..._paged_?"

Owen nodded.

Before he could speak, Cristina interrupted him – her voice becoming louder and more manic with every word. "Are you serious? You got 'paged'? _I've_ been trying to page you for the last hour! You just…. disappeared. I've left you like ten messages!"

Clearly apologetic and possibly a little afraid of her at the moment, Owen gave her a remorseful look and said, "I'm sorry, I just…"

Cristina had had it with him. "You're sorry? _You're sorry_? I've been going out of my mind trying to find you and you're sorry? You could have at least answered my page! I've been everywhere. I tried the vent - you weren't there. I tried our on-call room – you weren't there. I've been everywhere in this whole damn hospital looking for you. And now all you can say is that you're _sorry_?"

Owen gestured apologetically with his hands. "I don't know what else to…"

Cristina had heard enough. She turned around and walked back towards the door as she tried to compose herself. She took a deep breath and tried to check her anger before she continued to argue with him because obviously he didn't understand.

Finally walking back towards him, she gave a little sigh and looked at him sympathetically. "Look. I get it. I know what happened today made you go to your dark place. That it made you lash out. But you can't just shut me out like that. Owen, I want to help you. I want to be there for you and you can't just ignore me and hide."

Owen glanced down at the floor and murmured, "I just…" Running his hand through his hair, he looked up, "I needed some time to think."

Cristina slightly shook her head and watched as he closed the distance between them in three large steps.

"I'm sorry," Owen whispered.

Cristina looked into his eyes and felt the last remnants of her anger melt away at his contrite expression. Without breaking their gaze, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a hug. "Thank you," she whispered against his chest and felt him lightly kiss the top of her head in response.

Exhausted from running up who knew how many flights of stairs, she pulled away from their embrace and gestured with her head towards the exit. "Come on. Let's go home."

Owen shook his head. "I can't. I'm waiting."

Cristina crinkled her brow in confusion and exasperation. "What are you waiting _for_?" she asked.

With his arms still encircling her waist, he gestured once again towards the horizon. "Incoming trauma. Thirty minutes out. Getting flown in."

...

Several minutes passed by in silence, as the two of them stood side by side, leaning against the guard railing and gazing out into the clear Seattle night. The city lights were especially beautiful tonight due to the light mist that had settled across the bay causing the lights to twinkle in the night. Despite it being a fairly mild late-summer night, Cristina shuddered as a light breeze blew across the rooftop.

Owen looked over at her and pointedly gestured towards the goosebumps forming on her arm "You should go inside. It's getting cold out here."

Cristina shook her head. "I'm fine." She wasn't ready to go inside quite yet. She was enjoying the peace of just standing alongside Owen on this clear, starry night.

And in his full-on savior complex mode, Owen took off his jacket and slipped it over her shoulders.

"Well, now you're going to freeze."

Owen shrugged. "I'm fine."

Typical guy. Oh well. She was getting rather cold. As she looked down to the street below, she saw yet another ambulance drive into the ambulance bay and illuminate the courtyard with its flashing red and white lights.

"Tough day."

Owen nodded in agreement and continued to look out on the Seattle cityscape. "Yeah. _Really _tough day." After a moment, he glanced over at her. "Did you talk to the family?"

"Avery did it." Cristina could feel his mood suddenly change at the mention of the boy. "I heard that the other brother's going to be okay, too. Came out with just a minor concussion," she added, wanting to make him feel better.

"Good. That's good," he whispered. Cristina watched as he shook his head and murmured inaudibly to himself; chastising himself for something unsaid. After a few moments, he finally turned towards her. "I'm sorry about my outburst in the OR. I was just so…"

Cristina cut him off – not wanting him to punish himself any further. She reached out and gently grabbed his hand. "I know. It's okay."

"I've been up here trying to think about, you know, what triggered me." He paused before continuing, "I worked on a little kid just like him over there. Civilian kid – no more than seven or eight. Got caught in the crossfire…"

She gave his hand a little squeeze to encourage him to continue. It was rare for him to open up about his experiences "over there" and she didn't want him to stop.

"I knew," he continued, "I knew we first walked up to him. But you can't help but think that maybe this kid still has a shot. Maybe he'll make it."

Owen's eyes glazed over slightly as he gave into his memories. "I worked on him for almost an hour. Just my friend Dan and me. We only had the bare supplies because we were just driving back to our base. We radioed in for help, but they said it was too high risk to send us additional supplies." He paused. "We lost him."

Cristina watched as he shut his eyes and lowered his voice to a mere murmur. "How do you?…How do you comfort a little kid that you know if going to…." He pressed his lips together – silencing the thought that he was unable to voice and lowered his head in defeat.

Not knowing how else to comfort him, Cristina leaned over and gave him a tight hug. "But we saved this little boy."

She felt him nod against her shoulder and then pull away. He shook his head. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."

"You were good with him – the little boy."

Owen gave her a small nod of thanks then glanced away.

Once again, silence enveloped them, but it was no longer the comfortable kind. Cristina could see Owen was still beating himself up over the boy's death, despite how long ago it occurred. It was one of the things she loved about him – that he cared so much about his patients. But it also concerned her that he sometimes carried too much of a burden. "You'd be a good dad," she whispered against his side.

Owen looked down at her in confusion. "What?"

Not really knowing where that comment had come from herself, Cristina sheepishly looked down at the ground, searching for an explanation. "You're really good with kids. You care. I…I think that you'd be a really good father."

Owen's appreciative half-smile emboldened her to continue. "You would. You should be a dad."

A flash of excitement crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by a sudden sadness. "But you don't want..." Owen shook his head, as if to take back the words he just uttered. "I'm sorry. I don't want to start a…It's been a long enough day."

Cristina reached out to touch his arm. "No, I mean…," she paused to compose her thoughts. "I've been thinking about it, and I think that I could someday I could…you know...have kids…with you."

Cristina stood back, waiting for his inevitable excitement at her confession, and subsequent bear hug. However, much to her confusion, Owen just somberly looked back at her. "Cristina, I don't want you to change your mind about having kids just because I want them. I'm more than happy with just the two of us. I mean, look at Torres and Robbins – they're still fighting about it. I don't want to fight with you."

Taken aback by his response, Cristina couldn't help but feel a little pissed off that he wasn't jumping for joy that she just told him that she wanted a family with him. "Well, that's them. This is us."

She waited for him to agree with her, but instead, Owen continued to watch her quietly, waiting for her to continue. Unsure of whether she should tell him, she looked up at the dark sky and quietly confessed, "I had a negative pregnancy test last week."

Owen's eyes bulged out in shock and concern. "What? You never said—"

Cristina cut him off. "I didn't say anything because it was negative, so it didn't matter."

Owen shook his head and lowered his voice in tempered anger, "Cristina, it did…"

She held up her hand to silence him wanting to explain herself first. "I didn't tell you about it because I knew that it would just upset you and make you sad. But that's not the point." She paused, taking a deep breath, and continued. "The point is, is that when it came out negative I should have been relieved, but instead I was almost disappointed. Even a little sad. Which is insane. Really. I mean, the thought that I would have wanted it to be…" Unable to finish, she looked into his eyes. "I think I could do this…with you."

Cristina could see the excitement creep into his eyes, despite the restrained enthusiasm in his voice. "Are you sure? I mean, you don't have to decide right now. I don't want to you do anything that you don't want to do."

Watching him brace himself for the worst – wanting something so bad yet respecting her own desires first – only further reassured her decision. "I know. But I have. I've thought about this for a while. Hell, it's hard not to when it's _all_ Meredith talks about. And the more I keep thinking about it, the more that I want this." Seeing a hopeful smile cross his face, Cristina nodded at him with conviction. "I want to have a family with you, Owen."

Cristina couldn't help but smile back as she watched his joyful expression widen across his face.

He was about to say something, but she interrupted him. "But not right now – more like our ten-year plan, okay? I need to finish my residency first."

Owen nodded, his smile growing even wider.

"And, of course, Meredith would have to have a kid first, just so I would know what not to do."

Owen continued to beam at her while shaking his head in amusement. "You don't need Meredith to show you what not to do. You'd be a great mother."

Cristina looked up at him and couldn't help as her insecurity slightly crept into her voice. "You think?"

"Definitely." Leaning down, he kissed her soundly and nodded again. "Definitely."

"But let's get something straight – the kid's going to be a surgeon either way, agreed?"

Owen broke out into a loud laugh. "Oh, I have no doubt."

"Okay. Got that settled." Cristina smirked, as she felt him shaking his head in amusement on top of hers. She wasn't joking about the surgeon thing; it was non-negotiable.

She felt his beard tickle the side of her face as he leaned down; the sensation caused her to smile. "Thank you." Owen wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her, whispering again, "Thank you."

...

"How much longer till that trauma's due to arrive?"

Owen glanced down at his watch. "Um…fifteen-twenty minutes or so?"

She needed to sit down. Her feet were killing her. With the helicopter landing pad's ledge calling her name, she grabbed Owen's hand and pulled him over to the landing pad and sat down on the platform's edge.

"So much for our date night, huh?"

Owen shrugged. "We'll go tomorrow."

Cristina shook her head. "Can't. I'm on call."

"I'll talk to Derek. We need a night off. I haven't slept in our own bed for four days."

While she appreciated his take-charge attitude, she had to interject. "Okay. But just make sure that he knows it's_ your_ favor that you're calling in and not mine. I'm still saving up mine for something good."

"What favor?" Owen raised his brow in amusement. "You mean for saving his life?"

"Yeah. Just imagine what that's worth!" Seriously. She wasn't kidding. She had big plans for when she called that baby in. _Big _plans.

"You know, sometimes you're…"

"Genius? Fabulous? The smartest, most gorgeous woman you know?"

Owen winked at her and laughed. "All of that and more."

"Damn straight!" Cristina couldn't help but join in his laughter.

Owen looked down at his watch to note the time. "Have you eaten anything yet?" he asked.

"No."

Owen reached over and unzipped her – well, his jacket – and pulled out two Powerbars from one of the inner pockets. Waving it in front of her, he asked, "Want one?"

She didn't even bother replying. She was absolutely starving and grabbed it right out of his hand.

They both munched in silence as Owen leaned back on his elbows to gaze out into the nighttime sky.

"I bet they'll have your curls."

"Who?"

"Our kids."

Cristina snickered to herself. Well, that took all of two minutes for him to start talking about kids again. "Oh, so you've thought about this?"

"Oh, no. I was just…you know…thinking about it now."

"Right." Cristina knowingly cocked her eyebrow at him as he sheepishly shrugged back at her. He was a terrible liar. She knew he probably had already had colleges picked out and the pre-school deposit in already. "Remember: ten-year plan."

Owen excitedly nodded. "I know. Ten-year plan, have to finish your residency first."

Cristina rolled her eyes. Seriously, he was as bad as Meredith. Anyways, she already knew that their were going to have her dark hair and his blue eyes. Anyone who saw them knew that.

Not that the thought had ever crossed her mind until now.

"You know, I like it up here," Owen said as he gestured around the roof.

Cristina glanced back at him. "I thought you liked the vent?"

"Well, ever since you told all your friends about it - it's been occupied a lot."

"I'll kick their asses." She broke off another piece of the Powerbar. "Tell them to find their own secret sex spot," she mumbled with the food in her mouth.

Owen shrugged. "No, it's fine. I'll just get maintenance to change the locks."

"Yeah, well while you're at it, tell them to change the locks on our on-call room, too. Walked in on Sloan when I was trying to find you." Owen recoiled in disgust. Even though he looked like he couldn't be any more revolted at her statement, she couldn't resist teasing him more for good measure. "Seems like someone _else _has been sharing with their friends, too."

Owen forcefully shook his head. "Hell no! I do notdiscuss our sex life with _anyone_ – especially Mark Sloan." He paused, sighing as he came to a decision. "We're going to have to find a new on-call room."

"But I like that room."

"I know. I do too. But…" He paused for a moment and a mischievous grin spread across his face; Cristina could almost see the light bulb go off in his head. "We could always do it in the bed of my truck during our break."

"Ooo…dirty. I like it." Deciding to play along, she gave him her best innocent expression. "But we could get caught," she said, changing her tone to one of mock trepidation.

Owen matched her serious tone. "I know."

Their feigned seriousness lasted only a few seconds before they both broke into laughter.

Cristina tried to stop laughing, but she couldn't get the visual out of her head. "Oh my god, could you imagine if we got caught?"

"Yeah, maybe not such a good idea."

"Oh, no. We're doing it! The whole point is that we_ could_ get caught."

Owen shook his head at her. "You're so bad."

"Says the person who came up with the idea in the first place."

"So?"

Cristina devilishly grinned at him. "We could try it out tonight. I could go and strip down to my– "

"Stop. How am I supposed to go to work when you talk like that?"

"But when else are you going to see the new lingerie I got for you?"

"You're evil."

"I am. I admit it," she playfully shrugged.

Owen shook his head in amusement at her as he wrapped his arm around her. "You should go home and get some sleep. I'll meet this chopper and be right behind you."

"No. I'll stay and help you."

He looked over at her, noting, "But you're exhausted."

"I'm _fine."_ Sometimes she wished that there was an off-switch for his hero complex. "And since apparently _someone_ doesn't like my truck sex idea, think of this as our date."

She thought he was about to continue to argue with her, but instead Owen stood up, giving a quick glance down to his watch, and held his hand out to her.

"What are you doing?"

Owen shrugged. "Join me?" Without waiting for her response, he took her hand into his .

Cristina laughed in surprise as he pulled her up next to him. "What_ are_ you doing?" she asked incredulously.

Owen smirked as he wrapped his other arm around the small of her back.

She didn't budge. "You haven't answered my question. What are you doing?"

"Dancing," he replied, as if this should be obvious.

"No. You're losing it."

"Ah, come on! It will be fun. Think of _this _as our date."

"You can't be serious." Really, the incoming trauma more than made up for their botched date – this wasn't necessary.

"We have …" he glanced down at his watch again, "Eight minutes. More than enough time for one dance."

"You've got to be kidding me." However, judging the sincere expression on his face, she could tell that he wasn't. "Seriously?" Owen smiled and nodded back at her. Cristina groaned and looked back towards the exit door. "I mean…what if someone comes?"

Owen knowingly smiled and waved his pager at her. "Lucky that you're with the person in charge of paging the others up here."

With her every instinct telling her to leave because this was absolutely ridiculous, Cristina nevertheless found herself succumbing to his charm and began swaying to the silent beat. "Okay, just for a little bit though. And if someone comes…"

"We'll stop. Don't worry - I'll protect your hardcore reputation to the very end."

Cristina rolled her eyes at him.

Owen smiled back. "Come here my badass cardio goddess," pulling her tighter to his side, "Dance with me."

Cristina couldn't help but smile as Owen gracefully dipped her down. Well, maybe this dancing idea might not be _so_ bad. It was only 8 minutes after all. And who knew? Maybe a little dancing combined with a kick-ass cardio trauma might end up being the best date ever.

Maybe.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Once again, thanks again to my great beta-reader Shli :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.**

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* * *

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**Chapter 6**

_** 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days**_

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Cristina groaned as she blindingly fumbled around for the annoying object that had stirred her from her short, yet satisfying, nap. Just as she was about to reach the pager, a large hand reached over and silenced it for her.

"Thank you," she mumbled, settling back onto Owen's chest. "Whose is it?"

"Mine," Owen quietly replied. "Incoming trauma in twenty minutes."

"Stay five more minutes?" she asked, wrapping her arm tighter around his side. She wasn't ready for her "pillow" to leave the warmth of their bed just yet.

"Sure," he whispered as he resumed gently stroking her hair.

The rhythm of his breathing caused her to relax, and she felt herself once again drift back to sleep. It was in these little moments, caught between her dreamlike state and full consciousness, that she would begin to envision their future together — a future of waking up each morning like this until they were old and gray.

She smiled at her little daydream but quickly reminded herself that he had yet to ask her to marry him. For someone who was supposed to be gun-shy into entering another engagement, Cristina couldn't help but become more and more irritated with each passing day that Owen hadn't proposed to her yet.

It wasn't as if she didn't drop hints about making it official – hell, it was starting to become a daily occurrence. Yet, it had been over three months since he had first shown her the ring that he intended to propose to her with, and he still hadn't made his move — even though he still continued to carry it around in his wallet, which she checked every day.

_Beep. Beep. Beep...Thud._

_Seriously? Five more minutes. All I wanted was five more minutes, _she thought as she begrudgingly opened her eyes, incoherently whining in protest at the irritating sound. She'd barely raised her head off Owen's chest before he reached over and picked the ear-piercing pager off of the floor.

"That mine?"

"It's Teddy."

She groaned yet again, taking the pager from his hand, silencing it, and collapsing back onto him.

"I think you'll want to answer this one."

_Not really, _she thought. Cristina nonetheless picked the pager back off of the nightstand and glanced at the message. There was nothing special about the page at all: Teddy had simply paged Cristina to tell her meet her on the fourth floor in ten minutes. Curious about his cryptic response, she propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him. "Why? You know something I don't?"

Owen grinned back at her. "Let's just say that I have a feeling that you're going to want to answer that page."

"Oh, really?"

"Really."

"And what might cause you to have this feeling?"

Owen shrugged. "I don't know. Just a hunch."

"A hunch? Really?" she asked, cocking her eyebrow at him.

"Yeah."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "You're a horrible liar. What do you know?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me," she demanded more forcefully, quickly tiring of his little game.

Owen raised his hands in innocence. "I know nothing."

"Yeah, right. Tell me."

"Is it so wrong to think that you're going to have a good day?"

"It is when I know you're keeping something from me."

Owen smiled, the mirth never disappearing from his eyes, and leaned up to softly kiss her lips. "Love you."

Taken off-guard for just a split-second (it wasn't her fault that the man knew how to kiss), she pulled back and shook her head. "Oh, no. Don't try and distract me. Tell me what you know."

"No."

In addition to being a terrible liar, the other thing she knew for certain about Owen was that he could be one stubborn son-of-a-bitch when it came to revealing secrets. After waiting for his response for several moments, Cristina gave up and got up off the on-call room bed.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed last night because that's the last time you're getting any until you tell me. Think about that." She threw her scrub top back on, but not before she made sure he got one last good look at her black lingerie.

Owen simply laughed at her threat. "I'll keep that in mind. But something makes me think that you won't mind later, though."

_Slim chance of _that_ happening._ "Whatever. Your loss."

She quickly finished dressing, putting on her lab coat and helping Owen into his.

"Come on. Let's go," Owen said, gesturing towards the door.

_Not until you tell me what you know_, she thought, quickly stepping in front of him and blocking his exit. "Tell me."

"No."

"I was serious about the sex ban."

Owen smiled and gently removed her arms that were bracing against the doorway. "No, you weren't," he chuckled back.

She was about to retort when he swiftly silenced her with a kiss. "I'll talk to you later," he said, and then quickly exited the room.

Taken aback by his hasty exit, Cristina exited their on-call room and watched her redhead quickly disappear down the corridor. _What the hell was he up to?_

_...  
_

"Have you heard?"

"Is he really here?"

"I wonder if we'll be able to watch from the gallery."

Cristina walked through the mob of people, becoming more and more curious as she overheard each question. _What _is _going on? _she thought. And better question: Who was "he," and why did "he" have the entire fourth floor abuzz?

She spotted Lexie standing with Alex at a nurse's station and walked over to them. "What's going on? And why are you two on the cardio floor?"

Lexie looked over at her, bright-eyed with excitement. "Harper Avery is here!"

"_The _Harper Avery?"

"No. The other one," Alex quipped.

Cristina ignored him. "When did he get here?" she asked Lexie, unable to mask her own excitement.

"I heard he flew in last night to operate on a patient this morning."

"But what's he doing _here_?" It wasn't everyday that Harper Avery flew across the country to operate, let alone in Seattle Grace of all places.

"He was missing his number one fan-girl. Hope you're wearing your official fan club t-shirt under those scrubs, Yang."

Cristina glared back at Alex. "How's your brother doing these days? I miss Angel Spawn. He was so nice. Can we switch you out for him?"

"Oh, wait. I forgot," Alex said, ignoring her remark and exaggeratedly rummaging through his pockets until he produced his cell phone, handing it over to her. "You need this? I know how you like to document these encounters."

"Don't you have anywhere else to be?"

"Nope."

"Cristina!"

Cristina turned away from her stare-down with Alex at the sound of Teddy's voice and saw that she was standing with none other than god himself: Dr. Harper Avery.

_Do not freak out. Do not freak out_, she thought as she quickly made her way over to Teddy and Avery.

"Dr. Avery, I believe you've already met Dr. Yang."

Avery smiled brightly at Cristina and nodded. "Why, yes, I have. It's a pleasure again, Dr. Yang. I heard about your heroics a couple months ago. I can't say that I would have performed that well myself under that amount of pressure. Incredibly impressive. You're a true testament to our oath. You should be incredibly proud of yourself."

Unable to form syllables after Avery's compliment to her, Cristina stood slack-jawed for a moment before finally composing herself and uttering out, "Thank you, sir."

"Well, the praise is very much deserved. Dr. Altman tells me that you'll be operating with us today."

_What?_ Cristina looked over in disbelief at Teddy. "Uhh….I will?"

"Dr. Avery is performing a heart transplant on our situs inversus patient," Teddy explained. "Both you and I will assist."

"Or Dr. Yang, if you want, you may take the lead. You only see one of these cases once every ten years or so, and since you're clearly ready for the pressure, what do you say? I'll guide you though it every step of the way."

Cristina didn't know whether to jump up and down in happiness or pass out from excitement. Thankfully, she did neither due to the small part of her brain that wasn't completely freaking out and still allowed her to reply coherently. "Of course, sir. I'd be honored."

Avery smiled in satisfaction. "Fantastic! I believe we have an OR booked for 10 AM? Isn't that correct, Dr. Altman?"

"Yes. OR 4."

"Perfect. Well then, if you'd both excuse me, I'm going to go visit with my grandson for a little bit before we operate. See you both soon."

With that, Avery turned on his heel and walked down the hallway, leaving a gob-smacked Cristina Yang in his wake.

"Welcome to the big leagues, Yang," Teddy said, handing her the patient's chart and smiling at her reaction.

"Uh….th..thanks," she stuttered back.

_What had just happened?_ She had to be dreaming. Not only was she going to be performing one of the most rare and complicated heart transplants ever, but she was also going to be performing it with none other than Dr. Harper Avery. _The _Harper Avery. _Oh. My. God._

"You know you might want to lose the stuttering before you enter the OR. Might lose your cred."

Snapped out of her reverie, she turned around to retort but became quickly disarmed by Alex's warm smile.

"Nah. You're going to be great. Go rock that surgery. Make us all proud."

Cristina couldn't help but smile back at him. With a quick glance down to the chart in her hands, she nodded back at him, "I will."

...

Cristina was practically skipping down the hallway. She had just performed the operation of her career. Not only had Dr. Avery instructed her every step of the way, he had even offered her an open invitation to mentor her whenever she wanted to take him up on the offer.

"So, Miss Harper Avery prodigy, how was it?"

She stopped, turning around at the sound of her "person's" voice. "Amazing. It was…simply amazing."

"Well, come on—gimme details. I want to know all about it."

_Harper Avery called me _the_ surgeon to watch_, she thought. That alone was the highlight of her life. "I don't even know where to start. He let me perform the entire transplant—taking me through it step-by-step while Teddy and he assisted. Harper Avery assisted me." The more she thought more about it, the more surreal it became. "Mer—_Harper Avery_ assisted me!"

Meredith laughed along with her, sharing in her excitement. "So I take it that you liked Owen's surprise?"

_What? _Cristina looked at her friend, not understanding. _Owen_'s surprise_?_

"I have to confess," she continued. "I've known about it for a couple weeks now. He had to get it cleared with Derek before he could bring him in."

"Wait… _Owen_ arranged this?"

Meredith looked at her in confusion. "Yeah. He didn't tell you?"

"No. He never said a word about it. He just said that he had a feeling that I would have a good day today. He never…"

"Well, I can tell you that it was all his doing. You can go squee to him later about it."

Cristina still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Owen had brought _Harper Avery_ to the hospital. For _her_. "I can't believe he…How did he…?"

"I don't know how he pulled it off, but you sure lucked out with him."

"Yeah….yeah, I did," Cristina absentmindedly replied.

"I wish Derek would get Harper Avery to tutor me. You need to have Owen talk to him. I'm joking—but no, seriously, tell Owen that if Derek ever asks him what I want as a present—Harper Avery will do."

Lost in her thoughts trying to figure out how and why Owen would do this for her, Cristina followed Meredith down the corridor as she continued to ramble.

"But I totally get it now—what you see in him. He's a really good guy."

"He is." Suddenly, a thought popped into her head. "Mer, what day is it?"

"September 28th. Why?"

"I think I'm forgetting something. Something big." _Oh god. It had to be something really big. Why else would he do this? September 28__th__. What happened on September 28__th__? It's not his birthday. Is it our anniversary? No, we don't have one... Do we?_

Meredith shrugged. "Maybe he just did it to make you happy."

Cristina pulled her friend to a stop. "No, no. This is _way_ above and beyond doing something to make me happy. Give me a bypass, and I'll be happy. Arrange for Harper Avery—_the_ Harper Avery—to come to the hospital to operate with me? That's big, Mer. Huge."

"I don't know. Maybe he thinks it's your birthday?"

"No. He knows mine isn't today. He's big into birthdays. He already told me that he's taking me on vacation for mine."

"So, what then?"

"I don't know."_ Why does it feel like I missing something?_ "We need to go to the attendings' lounge."

Meredith furrowed her brow in confusion. "Why?"

"I need to check something."

Their walk to the lounge didn't take long. However, somewhere along the way, Meredith decided that they should be "spies" on their little fact-finding mission and made a great show of checking around every corner for Owen to give the "all clear" to her friend. Cristina really could care less if they met Owen along the way. All she wanted was one thing: his wallet.

She was about to open the door to the lounge when Meredith abruptly pulled her back.

"Wait," she whispered, quickly checking down the corridor. "Okay. No one's coming."

"Seriously?"

"Whatever. I'm having fun," she said, stepping away from the door. "Go get what you need."

Cristina shook her head in amusement of her friend's antics and opened the door to find Callie lying on the couch, listening to her iPod. _So much for being secret agents._

Callie sat up at their arrival, taking the headphones out of her ears. "Hey guys! What're you up to?"

Cristina wasn't in the mood for small talk. "Which one's Owen's?" she asked, pointing to the attendings' lockers.

"Far right. I think. Check to make sure. Why?"

"She needs to check something," Meredith said, sitting down with a huff next to Callie.

It didn't take Cristina long to find Owen's wallet in his meticulously neat cubicle. She quickly pulled out his driver's license and all of the cards in his wallet, trying to see if there was a date or a piece of paper that could give her a clue to his behavior today.

"Does your boyfriend know that you're going all stalker on him?"

"She's trying to figure out if she's forgetting an important date," Meredith explained. "Owen arranged for Harper Avery to fly in and operate with her."

"Are you serious? Damn. Cristina, I'm stealing your boyfriend from you."

Meredith laughed. "Get in line."

As she went through the various cards and scraps of paper, Cristina couldn't help but feel as if she hit a dead end. _This was a stupid idea anyways. September 28__th__? What was so special about September 28__th__? _It wasn't as if they had ever celebrated or marked off anniversaries before, so what could it be?

She put the cards back into the wallet, pausing at the coin purse. _Maybe?_ She had to check. She opened the pouch to reveal the ring. She felt her heart sink. For some reason, she thought that maybe it wouldn't be there, that he was going to surprise her and give it to today. _Stupid._

Meredith gasped. "What is _that?_" pointing to the ring.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Cristina turned around to face the dumbfounded women. "Yes."

"Did you know that was in there?" Callie questioned, her eyes as big as saucers.

"I've known for a while."

Meredith shook her head in disbelief. "How long's a while?"

"Three or four months? It's been a long time." _Too long,_ she thought.

"So, he's been carrying that around with him and you've known about it the entire time? How'd you find it? Does he know that you know about it?"

Cristina smiled at Meredith's rambling line of questioning. "Actually, he showed it to me."

Meredith's eyes lit up. "He _proposed_?"

"No. He just showed it to me."

"Why would he do that?" Callie asked, breaking into laughter. "I can't believe that he showed it to you. I'm going to have to explain surprises to that man."

"It wasn't like that." _He told me that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. That he wanted to get better for me. That I was his future. That I was "it."_ Not that she would share these details with these two.

A quiet descended between the threesome until Callie's pager punctuated the silence.

"Ugh," Callie sighed in disgust, glancing down at her pager and silencing it. "Another car accident. I just wish this weird weather would stop so I could get a break. It's been 24/7 for me these past couple days. Did you hear how it's supposed to snow tonight?"

"It's supposed to snow tonight? Really?"

"I know. Bizarre, right? But then, I guess it was like this a couple years ago. But still—snow in September?"

Cristina stopped breathing. It was if everything suddenly clicked into place. "I think I know why he did it."

Abruptly, Meredith and Callie stopped their conversation and seemingly could care less about the weather.

"Did what?" Meredith asked.

"Did this. It's the only thing that makes sense."

Meredith shook her head, not following. "What makes sense?"

"He's going to propose."

"You think he's going to propose?"

"Can I just say that it's about time?" Callie interrupted. "But if you wouldn't mind just waiting for a couple more months to make it official, I'd really appreciate it. I'm kinda in a pool with Mark."

Cristina simply raised her eyebrow at her roommate's request.

"And you're okay with this?" Meredith asked, clearly concerned.

A little smile broke her stoic exterior. "Yeah. Yeah, I am," she whispered back.

"I'd say yes if Arizona gave me _that _ring. Owen has good taste." Suddenly, Callie's pager went off again. "Crap, 911. You'll let me know what happens, right?" She quickly collected her belongings and opened the door to leave. "Page me," she said and then left.

Cristina could only nod back in acknowledgement of her request, too caught up in her emotions.

"You sure you're okay? You freaking out? You need a hug? A pep talk? We could do a little dance and dance it out. Anything?"

But Cristina was anything but freaking out. She had wanted this to finally happen for so long that she couldn't stand it. But what if she was wrong? What if she was just setting herself up for a let down? "No. No, I'm not. I need to—" _I have to check and make sure._

With a new sense of purpose, Cristina put the ring back in the wallet and began to leave the room.

"Where are you going? Need me to come with you?"

"No, it's okay. I just need to check something."

Meredith smiled in understanding and followed her out of the room. "Well, I want to know what happens too."

"Okay," Cristina confirmed, before turning to walk down the corridor.

"Call me!" Meredith yelled after her.

...

"Can you go any faster?" She'd practically ran to the patients' records room – well, actually, she did run – and she couldn't wait one moment longer to take a look at the file.

The records nurse glared back at Cristina. "You wanna do it?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, by all means. Find it yourself," she sarcastically replied, gesturing towards the stacks.

She didn't have to offer twice. Cristina nearly vaulted over the desk to get her hands on the file. Thankfully, "Yang" wasn't too hard to find and she quickly found her chart, flipping though the pages until she found what she wanted.

Her breath caught in her throat.

_September 28__th__, 2008. Treated for impalement by foreign object. Object removed and sutured. _The overseeing physician had signed the discharge form:_ Major Owen Hunt, US Army, 2__nd__ Forward Surgical._

September twenty-eighth: the night they met. Today was the anniversary of the night they first met. He had remembered. _That's why he did all of this. He—_

"Are you taking that with you? Otherwise, you're gonna have to put it back."

The nurse's interruption broke her train of thought, and she quickly blinked away the tears threatening to form in her eyes. "No, it's okay. I'm good," she said, handing the file back to the nurse.

"You okay hon'?" she softly asked.

"Yeah," Cristina said with a smile. "I'm fine. Thank you for your help."

...

With the confirmation that today was indeed "their" day Cristina felt an indescribable need to go find Owen. Not that she had any idea what she was going to say once she found him. She just wanted to be with him.

Thankfully, he wasn't hard to find. The man only had three places in the hospital that he frequented: the pit, the OR, and the vent. Luckily for her, she found him in the first place she looked without much trouble. He was treating a woman in one of the trauma bays with Jackson, instructing him on how to treat the woman's injuries.

As she watched him skillfully treat the patient, she couldn't help but feel nostalgic about their first meeting, especially with her newfound awareness of the significance of today's date. _Two years._ She couldn't believe that it had been that long since he had first strode into Seattle Grace in his combat fatigues and thus changing her life in the process.

She still wasn't sure what, if anything, she was going to say to him about the date or the ring. She did, however, want to thank him for the surgery. The rest she would just have to figure out later. Suddenly, Owen's eyes connected with hers from across the room, and she watched his face light up with happiness. After giving some quick instructions to Jackson, he strode over to her with a huge smile on his face.

"Hey there now."

In that moment, with his familiar greeting that carried so much meaning between them, Cristina knew _exactly_ what she wanted. Without providing an explanation, she grabbed his arm and dragged him into an empty trauma room and shut the door. She quickly pulled down the blinds and turned back around to face a very confused Owen looking back at her.

Now that she had him alone in the room, the words that she was so set on saying just a moment ago were not coming as easily as she had thought. Unable to say what she wanted to, she paced the room trying to figure out where to start. _Thank you for the surgery? For remembering? For being the love of my life?_

Finally, Owen tentatively broke the silence, "What?"

_Oh, the hell with it,_ she thought_._ In two steps, she rushed over to him and kissed him on the lips, trying to convey with her actions what she couldn't verbalize yet. At first Owen reacted with surprise but then quickly responded in kind, deepening the kiss and pulling her closer. Finally out of breath, they both pulled back.

"Wow," Owen exclaimed with a laugh. "Missed you, too."

Cristina, though, was dead serious. "Why did you give me that surgery?"

"Just because."

"So you arranged for _Harper Avery_ to fly all the way out here to operate with me 'just because'?"

"Yeah. How was it by the way? I'm sorry I missed it. I had an emergency surgery I had to scrub in on. I heard you were amazing," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

Cristina pulled away from his embrace. "Don't change the subject. Tell me the real reason. Now."

"I just wanted to do something nice for you. It's…nothing."

"It's the anniversary of the day we first met."

Owen's eyes widened in shock at her admission. "You remembered?"

"Yes." Cristina gave him an affirmative nod, but quickly qualified, "Well, kind of…but yes. It's today isn't it?" _According to the three pages in my chart it is._ But she wanted to hear him say it.

Owen shyly shrugged and looked away as he explained, "I know you're not big on anniversaries, but when I realized what day it was, I wanted to do something special for you."

_That's _it_? He just wanted to do something _special_? Nothing more? He wasn't going to propose_? "When are you going to ask me to marry you?" she blurted out. _Did I just say that aloud?_

Owen's jaw dropped at her question.

_Yep, sure did._

"Wha…what?" he stammered.

"When are you going to ask me?"

"Do you want me to ask you?"

"Owen, I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore." His eyes suddenly clouded over with hurt, so she quickly added, "I want to be your wife."

Owen just stared back at her, his mouth moving, but with no words coming out.

"And you have the ring. It's still in your wallet. I checked. Hell, I check everyday while you're in the shower." This little admission caused him to smile, emboldening her to continue, "So, let's just do it."

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

"Yes…no. You have to ask me."

"You want _me_ to ask _you_ to marry me?"

"Yes, but…No. I want to _marry _you. As in, get married. Let's just do it. We could go down to city hall today."

Owen blinked in confusion. "Wait—_what_?"

Cristina looked up at the ceiling, searching for the best way to explain herself. "I don't want an engagement. I don't want a long strung-out affair of choosing gowns and colors and cakes. That's not for me. I just want to be married to you. The dress and the wedding planning — they aren't that important to me. _You're_ what's important to me. _We're _what's important. And I don't want to wake up another morning not married to you."

"You want to get married t_oday_?"

She shrugged, smiling. "Yeah, why not?" However, she quickly noticed that her enthusiasm for her little plan wasn't exactly matched by Owen, judging by the stunned expression still on his face. "What? Too soon?"

Her words shook him out of his shocked stupor, and he laughed, pulling her close to him and kissing her soundly on her lips. With a smile, he pulled away and got down on one knee.

"Cristina Yang, I love you. I've loved you since the moment I set eyes on you. I want to take care of you, to laugh with you, and to grow old together with you. Will you do me the honor of marrying me and becoming my wife?"

Cristina nodded, tears involuntarily welling in her eyes. "Yes."

Owen beamed and stood up, kissing her again.

"You really want to get married today?"

"Yep. Quick and dirty. You can call up your mom, and I'll get Mer and Derek to meet us down at city hall." She paused, checking his face, "Are you okay with this?"

Owen wrapped his arms around her. "Cristina, I'll marry you whenever you want. All you have to do is tell me when and where. If you want to get married today, we can get married today."

Cristina smiled and kissed him softly on the lips. "Thank you."

"We're getting married today."

"Uh, huh."

"Wow," he shook his head, seemingly still trying to wrap his head around the idea. "Okay, then. Wow."

Cristina laughed at his happy expression and pulled out her cell phone, hitting speed dial #2. The phone picked up on the first ring.

"Mer?"

"Hey. What's up? What happened with Owen and the ring because I was thinking that maybe I could mention—"

"Cancel your plans and grab your post-it husband and meet us down at city hall at five o'clock."

Meredith paused. "Wait. Why?"

Cristina smiled, glancing over at Owen. "I'm getting married."

...

"What is this place?"

Owen looked over at her and smiled. "Where I wanted us to start," he explained, opening the car door.

She looked over at him to explain further, but he was already beginning to walk over to her side of the truck. She really should have paid better attention when they were driving here, but she was so distracted by their newly matched rings that she couldn't pay attention to anything else.

As soon as she exited the truck, she took a quick look around at the dense foliage and park ranger signs and concluded that they were at some sort of park by the ocean; the unmistakable smell of the ocean penetrated the air and she could hear the faint sound of waves in the distance. As for why Owen had made a point to detour to this particular park on their way home, she had absolutely no idea.

They walked side-by-side up the dirt road until they reached a fenced gate. _Well, that was a quick trip. _

"It's locked."

"No," Owen said, motioning off into the trees. "Follow me."

Oh, so _this_ was how their married life was going to start: following Rambo into the wilderness. Really, she should have expected this when she saw that he had put an extra set of street clothes in the car before they left for city hall. With a roll of her eyes, she followed directly behind him as he traced the fence line into the trees. She was about to ask how much longer he was planning on hiking into the woods for when he suddenly stopped in front of a huge gap in the fence.

She simply shook her head at his "discovery". Yep, definitely should have known that he'd take her to some place like this. Taking her hand, Owen helped her though the gap and led her down the short trail until it suddenly opened up to reveal a long beach.

As they walked through the tall beach grass, she looked out to see a ferryboat silently gliding in the distance, framed by the dark mountains and the glimmering city skyline. The quietly lapping waves were illuminated by the moonlight, causing them to twinkle.

"How do you know about this place?" she asked, feeling Owen gently squeeze her hand as she continued to admire the view.

"My dad used to take me down here when I was a kid. We used to come here on the weekends and try to fish off the shore. Didn't ever catch anything, but I loved coming down here and spending time with him." He looked away, caught up in the memory. After a moment, he looked back at her. "Anyways…I've been coming here ever since," he explained, as he skillfully maneuvered them through the stacks of driftwood and onto the beach.

She was beginning to have a feeling where they were, but it wasn't until they came around the bend and she spotted a small red-roofed white building in the distance with an unmistakable flashing bright light that her suspicion was confirmed.

"Is that?"

Owen smiled and nodded. "The West Point Lighthouse."

...

As they walked further along the beach, Cristina couldn't stop staring at the gold wedding bands on their intertwined fingers.

"I can't believe we're married."

Owen gave her hand a squeeze and smiled back at her. "I know."

"Took long enough," she laughed. "Were you_ ever_ going to ask me?"

"Of course I was. I just wanted to make sure you were ready. I didn't want to pressure you into anything. You know…with the—"

"Owen, I would have accepted this ring when you first showed it to me."

Owen broke into a wide smile, looking off into the distance, shaking his head in disbelief.

"What?" she asked, curious as to what he was thinking about that was causing him to grin like an idiot.

He shrugged back at her. "Nothing."

_Yeah, right._ "I'm your wife now. You have to tell me everything."

"I just…" he paused to look deep into her eyes, his sincerity shining through. "I feel like I'm the luckiest guy alive right now."

Cristina smiled back at him and reached up to cup his face between her hands and tenderly kissed him. "I love you," she whispered against his lips.

"Love you, too," he whispered back, still smiling.

His enthusiasm was proving to be contagious, and Cristina felt a goofy grin appear on her own face.

Owen reached down for her hand and began to resume their walk towards the lighthouse. Suddenly, she stopped, remembering the object she had brought with her. She couldn't believe she that she had forgotten about it considering how long she had waited to give it to him.

"Wait. I have something for you."

"What?" he asked, arching his brow in curiosity.

"You have to close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Oh, just do it. You're not the only one who gets to do surprises."

Owen slowly closed his eyes, teasingly opening them for a second before closing them again.

"Keep 'em closed. Now hold out your hand."

Once she was convinced that he was going to keep his eyes closed, she removed the small, heavy object from her pocket and latched it onto his wrist.

"Okay, open them."

She watched as Owen's eyes widened in appreciation of the gold watch she had given him.

"Wow. Thank you! This is—wow."

Cristina smiled back, excited about his reaction to her present. "It was my dad's," she explained.

Owen's mouth opened in shock. "Cristina…I can't—"

"No, it's yours. I want you to have it. It's your wedding present. You got me Harper Avery; this watch is yours."

"But this is too much."

Cristina took his hand. "I want you to have it." Looking down at the watch, she continued, "I've wanted to give it to you for a long time and was just waiting for the right time. My dad would have wanted you to have it. He would have wanted to give it to you to show you how thankful he was for making his daughter the happiest she's ever been in her life." She gave him an encouraging smile and squeezed his hand again.

Owen looked down at her with glassy eyes and whispered, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she whispered back, giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

...

"Well, I guess I should call your mom back and tell her that I asked you. Although, I'm not too sure that she'll appreciate that we got married without her knowing."

Cristina shrugged. "She'll get over it." _Eventually._ "Wait. You've actually talked to my mother?"

Owen grinned at her. "I've actually _met _your mother."

_What?_ "You…when?"

"Remember that conference I went to in San Diego last month? I may have made a little detour though LA."

"You didn't."

"I wasn't going to ask you to marry me before I met her."

Cristina laughed in disbelief. Owen and her mother. Together. She almost wished that she had been there to watch that show—almost. "So how'd it go?"

"I don't think she knew what to think of me at first, something about me being 'another surgeon,' but in the end she gave me her blessing." He let out a little laugh and shook his head, "I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. Your mother is quite the opinionated woman."

Yep, he definitely met her mother. "Oh, you have no idea!"

"You know, I was in the army for twelve years and met more generals than you could count, and I'd bet any amount of money that your mother could put any of them in their place any day."

Cristina snorted with laughter at her mental image of her mother intimidating the hell out of her badass army surgeon. It was only funnier because she knew it was true. "So how'd you pull it off?"

Owen quirked his brow. "Pull what off?"

"Get her to like you. She doesn't like…well, anyone that I do."

"I told her that you were the love of my life. That I've loved you since the first moment I met you. And I promised her that I would take care of you and love you every day for the rest of my life."

"For forty years. You promised."

"You can have more than forty. You can have them all."

"You're not a very good negotiator, but I'll take 'em. And let's get something straight: if you _ever_ get that silly idea about taking my scalpel out of my hand again, I'm taking away yours, too."

"Deal," Owen chuckled and leaned over to kiss her on the head, wrapping his arm around her.

...

Finally, after walking for a nearly an hour down the beach, they reached the lighthouse. She was about to sit down on a log outside when suddenly Owen miraculously produced a key to the small white building. Once inside, he directed her up to the second floor catwalk.

As she leaned against him and looked out to the moonlit ocean, Cristina was overwhelmed by a sense of peace, as the cool, ocean breeze caressed her face.

"I like it here."

"It's peaceful," Owen agreed. "Not a lot of people come down here, especially at night. Whenever I would want to get away, I would come here. Actually, the night I met you, I was on my way here."

Cristina turned around in his arms to face him. "Really?"

"Really," he smiled. "I wanted to come down here one last time before I had to ship out. It was a spur of the moment decision. But on my way here, there was a car accident and, well, you know the rest."

Oh, she _definitely_ knew the rest.

"We had this sergeant in my unit," he continued. "Jenkins was his name. Anyways, he would always talk on and on about fate and destiny and we'd always laugh it off, call him crazy. But after that night, I couldn't help but think that maybe Jenkins was right. Maybe it was fate that led me to you. Because if I hadn't had decided at the last minute to come here, I wouldn't have met you."

"Or stapled your leg shut," Cristina smirked. "Admit it—that _had _to have hurt."

"Oh, it hurt like hell. But it impressed you, huh?

"Not as much as the pen trache. Now _that_ impressed me. You stapling your leg shut by yourself? Now that was just showing off."

Owen smiled. "When I walked out of that trauma room that day I met you, I couldn't believe how unfair it was to find you—only to have to leave. So I made a promise to myself that night. I was going to do everything in my power to ship out, do my duty, try not to get my ass shot off, and then get back here as fast as I could so I could kiss the hell out of you again."

Cristina smiled back, "Well, I'm glad you did."

"Never had a choice."

"Good. Because let me tell you—after you kissed me like that, you ruined me for life!" she laughed.

However, Owen didn't join her in her laughter and instead just stared back at her with a serious expression on his face.

"What?"

She had barely uttered the words, when Owen's lips suddenly crashed onto hers. Cristina closed her eyes and let out a little moan of pleasure, as she felt him grab a fist-full of her hair, evoking her memory of that night so long ago. Suddenly, just as abruptly as the kiss had started, it ended, and she opened her eyes in confusion.

"Like that?"

Cristina squinted her eyes in fake concentration, as if she was really trying to remember the night that she would never forget. "Nah…try again."

This time, Owen gently cupped the side of her face to slowly and sensually kissed her until all of her nerve endings were on fire. Cristina felt herself drifting away into the ecstasy of the moment until she felt him pull away again.

"How about that?" he huskily whispered.

"That might have been a little better. Do it again so I can compare."

"Again? Our lips are going to be bruised if we keep this up."

"_So?" _she asked, teasingly cocking her eyebrow at him.

Owen smiled. "That's my line."

"No," she said. "That's _our_ line now."

* * *

_**AN:**_ First off, I have to thank my great beta-reader Shli for reading this. She's awesome! I also want to thank everyone who sent in reviews and encouraged me to write this chapter. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed it.


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